LC 
268 

N43 


UC-NRLF 


DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR 
BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION 


BULLETIN,  1917,  No.  51 


MORAL  VALUES 
IN  SECONDARY  EDUCATION 


A  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMISSION  ON 
THE  REORGANIZATION  OF  SECOND- 
ARY EDUCATION,  APPOINTED  BY  THE 
NATIONAL  EDUCATION  ASSOCIATION 


HENRY  NEUMANN 

ETHICAL  CULTURE  SCHOOL,  NEW  YORK  CfTY 


WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE 
1918 


BULLETIN  OF  THE  BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION. 

NOTE.— With  the  exceptions  indicated,  the  documents  named  below  will  be  sent  free 
of  charge  upon  application  to  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  Washington,  D.  C.  Those 
marked  with  an  asterisk  (*)  are  no  longer  available  for  free  distribution,  but  may  be 
had  of  the  Superintendent  of  Documents,  Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  D.  C., 
upon  payment  of  the  price  stated.  Remittances  should  be  made  in  coin,  currency,  or 
money  order.  Stamps  are  not  accepted. 

A  complete  list  of  available  publications  will  be  sent  upon  application. 

1917. 

*No.    1.  Monthly   record  of  current   educational   publications,   January,   1917. 

5  cts. 

*No.    2.  Reorganization  of  English  in  secondary  schools.     A  report  of  the  Com- 
mission on  Secondary  Education.     James  F.  Hosic.    20  cts, 
*No.    3.  Pine-needle  basketry  in  schools.     William  C.  A.  Hammel.     5  ct». 
No.  ^  Secondary  agricultural  schools  in  Russia.     W.  S.  Jesien. 
*No.    5.  Report  of  an  inquiry  into  the  administration  and  support  of  the  Colo- 
rado school  system.     Katherine  M.  Cook  and  A.  C.  Monahan.     10  cts. 
No.   6.  Educative  and  economic  possibilities  of  school -directed  home  gardening 

in  Richmond,  Ind.     J.  L.  Randall. 

No.    7.  Monthly  record  of  current  educational  publications,  February,  1917. 
No.   8.  Current  practice  in  city  school  administration.     W.  S.  DelTenbaugh. 
No.   9.  Department-store  education.     Helen  R.  Norton. 
No.  10.  Development  of  arithmetic  as  a  school  subject.     W.  S.  Monroe. 
*No.  11.  Higher  technical   education   in   foreign   countries.     A.   T.   Smith   and 

W.  S.  Jesien.    20  cts. 

No.  12.  Monthly  record  of  current  educational  publications,  March,  1917. 
No.  13.  Monthly  record  of  current  educational  publications,  April,  1917. 
*No.  14.  A  graphic  survey  of  book  publication,  1890-1916.     F.  E.  Woodward. 

5  cts. 

No.  15.  Studies  in  higher  education  in  Ireland  and  Wales.     Geo.  E.  MacLean. 
No.  16.  Studies  in  higher  education  in  England  and  Scotland.     Geo.  E.  Mac- 
Lean. 

No.  17.  Accredited  higher  institutions.     S.  P.  Capen. 

*No.  18.  History  of  public-school  education  in  Delaware.     S.  B.  Weeks.    20  cts. 
No.  19.  Report  of  a  survey  of  the  University  of  Nevada. 
No.  20.  Activities  of  school  children  in  out-of-school  hours.    C.  D.  Jarvis. 
No.  21.  Monthly  record  of  current  educational  publications,  May,  1917. 
No.  22.  Money  value  of  education.    A.  C.  Ellis. 

*No.  23.  Three  short  courses  in  home  making.    Carrie  A.  Lyford.    15  cts. 
No.  24.  Monthly  record  of  current  educational  publications — Index,  February, 

1916-January,  1917. 
No.  25.  Military    training    of    youths    of    school    age    in    foreign    countries. 

W.  S.  Jesien. 

No.  26.  Garden  clubs  In  the  schools  of  Englewood,  N.  J.    Charles  O.  Smith. 
No.  27.  Training  of  teachers  of  mathematics  for  secondary  schools.    R.  C. 

Archibald. 

No.  28.  Monthly  record  of  current  educational  publications,  June,  1917. 
No.  29.  Practice  teaching  for  secondary  school-teachers.     A.  R.  Mead. 
No.  30.  School  extension  statistics,  1915-16.     Clarence  A.  Perry. 
No.  31.  Rural-teacher  preparation  in  county  training  schools  and  high  schools. 

H.  W.  Foght 
No,  32,  Work  of  the  Bureau  of  Education  for  the  natives  of  Alaska,  1915-16. 

£Centinued  on  page  3  of  cover.] 


DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION 


BULLETIN,  1917,  No.  51 


MORAL  VALUES 
IN  SECONDARY  EDUCATION 


A  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMISSION  ON 
THE  REORGANIZATION  OF  SECOND- 
ARY EDUCATION,  APPOINTED  BY  THE 
NATIONAL  EDUCATION  ASSOCIATION 


Prepared  by 

HENRY  NEUMANN 

ETHICAL  CULTURE  SCHOOL,  NEW  YORK  CflY 


WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE 
1918 


PREFACE. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Reviewing  Committee  of  the  Commission  on 
the  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education  held  in  Chicago  in  No- 
vember, 1915,  Dr.  Henry  Neumann,  a  member  of  the  committee  and 
a  teacher  in  the  Ethical  Culture  School,  New  York  City,  was  re- 
quested to  prepare  a  statement  on  Moral  Values  in  Secondary  Edu- 
cation. The  statement  prepared  by  Dr.  Neumann  was  discussed  at 
the  meeting  of  the  committee  the  following  July.  After  revision  it 
was  submitted  to  all  the  members  of  the  committee  and  has  been 
approved  by  them.  This  approval  does  not  commit  every  member 
individually  to  every  statement  and  every  implied  educational  doc- 
trine, but  does  mean  essential  agreement  as  a  committee  with  the 
general  recommendations. 

The  purpose  of  this  bulletin  is  to  stimulate  the  thought  of  teachers 
in  discovering  their  innumerable  opportunities  for  quickening  the 
conscience  and  clarifying  the-  moral  vision  of  their  pupils.  The 
attention  of  teachers  is  here  directed  also  to  the  other  reports  of  the 
commission,  in  which  are  elaborated  many  of  the  ideas  presented  in 
this  report.  No  series  of  reports,  however,  could  compass  the  rich 
opportunities  of  the  secondary  school  for  developing  the  ethical  life 
of  young  people. 

CLARENCE  D.  KINGSLET, 
Chairman  of  the  Commission* 

5 


THE  REVIEWING  COMMITTEE. 

(The  Reviewing  Committee  consists  of  26  members,  of  whom  10  are  chairmen  of  com 
mlttces  and  10  are  members  at  large.) 

Chairman  of  the  Commission  and  of  the  Reviewing  Committee: 

Clarence  D.  Kingsley,  State  High  School  Inspector,  Boston,  Mass. 
Members  at  large: 

Hon.  P.  P.  Claxton,  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  Washing- 
ton, D.  G. 

Thomas  H.  Briggs,  Associate  Professor  of  Education,  Teachers'  College, 
Columbia  University,  New  York  City. 

Alexander  Inglis,  Assistant  Professor  of  Education,  hi  charge  of  Secondary 
Education,  Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Henry  Neumann,  Ethical  Culture  School,  New  York  City. 

William  Orr,  Senior  Educational  Secretary,  International  Y.  M.  C,  A.  Com- 
mittee, 104  East  Twenty-eighth  Street,  New  York  City. 

William  B.  Owen,  Principal,  Chicago  Normal  College,  Chicago,  111. 

Edward  O.  Sisson,  President,  University  of  Montana,  Missoula,  Mont 

Joseph  S.  Stewart,  Professor  of  Secondary  Education,  University  of  Geor- 
gia, Athens,  Ga.,  and  State  High  School  Inspector. 

Miio  H.  Stuart,  Principal,  Technical  High  School,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

H.  L.  Terry,  State  High  School  Inspector,  Madison,  Wis. 
Chairmen  of  committees: 

Administration  of  High  Schools — Charles  Hughes  Johnston,1  Professor  of 
Secondary  Education,  University  of  Illinois,  Urbana,  111. 

Agriculture — A.  V.  Storm,  Professor  of  Agricultural  Education,  University 
of  Minnesota,  St.  Paul,  Minn. 

Ancient  Languages — Walter  Eugene  Foster,  Stuyvesant  High  School,  New 
York  City. 

Art    Education — Henry   Turner   Bailey,    Dean,   Cleveland    School    of   Art. 
Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Articulation  of  High  School  and  College — Clarence  D.  Kingsley,  State  High 
School  Inspector,  Boston,  Mass. 

Business    Education — Cheesman    A.    Herrick,    President,    Girard    College, 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

English — James  Fleming  Hosic,  Chicago  Normal  College,  Chicago,  111. 

Household  Arts — Amy  Louise  Daniels,  University  of  Wisconsin,  Madison, 
Wis. 

Industrial  Arts — Wilson  H.  Henderson,  Extension  Division,  University  of 
Wisconsin,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 

Mathematics — William   Heard   Kilpatrick,   Associate   Professor  of  Educa- 
tion, Teachers'  College,  Columbia  University,  New  York  City. 

Modern  Languages — Edward  Manley,  Englewood  High  School,  Chicago,  III. 

Music — Will  Earhart,  Director  of  Music,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Physical  Education — James  H.  McCurdy,  Director  of  Normal  Courses  of 
Physical  Education,  International  Y.  M.  C.  A.  College,  Springfield,  Mass. 

Sciences — Otis  W.   Caldwell,   Director,   Lincoln   School,   and   Professor   of 
Education,  Teachers'  College,  New  York  City. 

Social  Studies — Thomas  Jesse  Jones,  United  States  Bureau  of  Education, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Vocational    Guidance — Frank    M.    Leavitt,    Associate    Superintendent    of 
Schools,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 


» Deceased  Sept   4,  1917. 
6 


MORAL  VALUES  IN  SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 


I.  SUPREME  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  MORAL  AIMS  IN  AMERICAN 

EDUCATION. 

To  consider  moral  values  in  education  is  to  fix  attention  upon 
what  should  be  the  paramount  aim.  A  schooling  that  imparts  knowl- 
edge or  develops  skill  or  cultivates  tastes  or  intellectual  aptitudes, 
fails  of  its  supreme  object  if  it  leaves  its  beneficiaries  no  better 
morally.  In  all  their  relationships  present  and  future,  that  is,  as 
schoolmates,  as  friends,  as  members  of  a  family,  as  workers  in  their 
special  vocations,  as  Americans,  as  world  citizens,  the  greatest  need 
of  our  boys  and  girls  is  character,  the  habitual  disposition  to  choose 
those  modes  of  behavior  that  most  do  honor  to  human  dignity.  Not 
simply  to  learn  to  tell  the  truth  or  to  respect  property  rights,  but 
to  realize  in  ever  more  vital  ways  that  the  worth  of  life  consists  in 
the  endeavor  to  live  out  in  every  sphere  of  conduct  the  noblest  of 
which  one  is  capable — this  it  is  which  gives  education  its  highest 
meaning.1 

Stated  in  terms  of  national  service,  the  aim  of  the  secondary 
school  should  be  to  equip  our  pupils  as  fully  as  possible  with  the 
habits,  insights,  and  ideals  that  will  enable  them  to  make  America 
more  true  to  its  best  traditions  and  its  best  hopes.  To  strengthen 
what  is  most  admirable  in  the  American  character  and  to  add  to  it 
should  be  the  goal  toward  which  all  the  activities  are  pointed. 
Hence  the  bast  contribution  that  any  school  can  offer  is  to  enrich 
the  understanding  of  what  is  required  for  right  living  together  in 
a  democracy,  to  encourage  every  disposition  toward  worthy  initiative 
and  cooperation,  and  to  provide  all  opportunity  for  the  practice 
through  which  these  habits  and  attitudes  are  most  surely  ingrained. 
By  a  fortunate  circumstance,  leading  features  in  our  national  life, 
such  as  our  ideals  of  liberty  and  equality,  and  such  traits  as  a  distinct- 
strain  of  chivalry,  link  themselves  naturally  with  tendencies  espe- 
cially active  in  young  people  during  their  years  in  the  secondary 

1  Moral  behavior,  as  here  understood,  Is  that  which  calls  out  in  all  concerned,  in  the 
agent  himself  as  well  as  in  the  recipient  and  iti  all  who  are  in  any  way  involved,  the  best 
of  which  each  is  uniquely  capable.  Friendship,  for  example,  is  morally  valuable  to  the 
extent  that  each  of  the  friends  stimulates  the  distinctive  excellence  of  the  other  and 
thereby  of  himself ;  and  since  each  can  be  his  best  only  as  he  acts  out  his  various  rela- 
tionships aright,  in  the  home,  the  vocation,  etc.,  where  the  same  rule  of  reciprocal  stimu- 
lation applies,  it  follows  that  the  influence  of  friend  upon  friend  thus  reaches  out  into 
Increasingly  broader  circles.  For  this  conception  and  for  much  else  here  included  th« 
writer  is  indebted  to  Prof.  Felix  Adler. 


MOEAL  VALUES  IN  SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 


school.  Tins  is  peculiarly  the  time  when  they  crave  freedom,  self- 
reliancte,"  the  chance  to  show  what  they  can  do  by  themselves ;  it  is 
the  time  when  they  are  notably  conscious  of  a  new  personal  worth, 
a  quickened  sense  of  justice,  and  a  broadened  desire  to  help  their 
fellow  beings.  By  seizing  every  occasion  therefore  to  give  these 
promptings  their  best  nurture,  the  school  accomplishes  two  purposes 
that  coincide:  It  makes  for  a  better  America  by  helping  its  pupils 
to  make  themselves  better  persons. 

How  can  this  be  achieved?  It  would  be  a  mistake  for  the  high 
school  to  place  its  main  reliance  upon  any  single  method,  as  if  char- 
acter could  be  developed  chiefly  by  imparting  moral  wisdom  or 
even  by  instilling  special  habits  or  holding  up  lofty  ideals.  Intelli- 
gence, habits,  ideals,  all  three,  are  required.  Without  habits,  ideals 
degenerate  into  sentimentalism ;  without  moral  understanding  and 
ideals,  habit  becomes  dead  routine  incapable  of  growth  into  new 
and  better  ambitions.  Any  one  of  these  without  the  other  two 
would  leave  important  aspects  lacking. 

II.  THE  PROBLEM  OF  DISTINCT  COURSES  IN  MORAL  INSTRUCTION. 

To  meet  this  threefold  requirement,  is  it  desirable  that  in  every 
high  school  at  the  present  time  the  other  activities  should  be  supple- 
mented by  distinct  courses  in  moral  instruction  ?  Teachers  properly 
trained  to  conduct  such  courses  are  very  few.  Let  us,  therefore,  con- 
sider the  advantages  of  this  method,  the  disadvantages,  and  the  re- 
quirements for  adopting  it  successfully. 

In  the  hands  of  enthusiastic,  well-trained  teachers,  courses  of  this 
kind  may  do  much  to  expand  and  deepen  the  moral  insight  of  young 
people,  to  promote  a  habit  of  moral  thoughtfulness,  and  to  elevate 
their  purposes.  By  providing  place  for  this  subject  the  school  em- 
phasizes the  fact  that  it  considers  moral  thinking  sufficiently  im- 
portant to  receive  specific  attention*  Furthermore,  by  the  allotment 
of  a  definite  time  the  subject  is  insured  against  the  neglect  likely  to 
attend  a  merely  incidental  treatment.  There  is  also  allowed  a  more 
complete  consideration  of  duties  than  is  possible  when  moral  prob- 
lems are  discussed  only  as  some  special  incident,  such  as  a  breach 
of  discipline,  a  new  school  ordinance,  or  a  celebration,  brings  the 
opportunity.  For  instance,  many  of^the  finer  duties  of  home  life 
would  never  be  considered  if  the  teacher  were  obliged  to  wait  until 
some  special  occasion  arises. 

Moreover,  a  distinct  course  offers  greater  chance  than  incidental 
instruction  to  develop  the  broad,  far-reaching  principles  that  growth 
in  character  requires.  Particularly  is  this  true  in  a  democracy 
pledged  to  progress.  If  conduct  is  to  be  other  than  conventional 
morality,  or  slavish  obedience  to  whatever  happens  to  be  the  prevail- 


MORAL  VALUES   IN   SECONDARY   EDUCATION.  9 

ing  code,  surely  there  must  be  careful  thinking  upon  underlying 
principles.  Quiet,  earnest  reflection  upon  these  principles  at  regu- 
lar times  under  the  guidance  of  the  right  kind  of  teacher  is  therefore 
a  need  of  which  the  young  people  themselves  may  not  be  particularly 
conscious,  but  which,  in  these  days  of  extremely  hurried  living,  is 
important  enough  to  deserve  every  encouragement.1 

Before  such  courses  are  offered,  however,  it  is  essential  to  remem- 
ber the  following  facts.  When  moral  instruction  is  treated  as  a  dis- 
tinct subject,  there  is  danger  that  the  other  moral  opportunities  of 
the  school  will  be  overlooked  or  slighted.  It  is  easy  to  shift  to  the 
special  teacher  the  burden  of  concern  for  character  and  to  forget  that 
every  activity  should  be  utilized  to  this  end. 

A  second  danger  is  that  the  teacher  will  make  this  course  an  imi- 
tation of  the  usual  courses  in  ethics  offered  in  college.  Such  a  method 
is  fatal.  High-school  instruction  in  ethics  should  be  as  different  from 
college  work  in  ethical  theory  as  nature  study  in  the  elementary 
school  is  from  college  biology,  or  as  high-school  English  is  from  uni- 
versity courses  in  philology  or  literary  history.  Concrete  problems 
of  home,  school,  vocation,  community,  should  be  the  topics ;  and  gen- 
eralizations or  principles  should  be  brought  into  consciousness  only 
as  they  clarify  such  actual  problems.  In  the  teaching  of  any  subject 
it  is  always  mischievous  for  the  pupils  to  think  that  they  have  ideas 
when  they  have  only  words.  The  peril  is  gravest  where  the  aim  is 
daily  right  conduct. 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  courses  of  this  nature  make  special  demands. 
They  call  in  the  first  place  for  genuine,  eager  interest  on  the  part  of 
the  teacher.  Lacking  this,  they  become  dry  monologues  or  the  per- 
functory execution  of  so  many  items  per  period  in  a  given  syllabus. 
It  is  bad  for  pupils  to  dislike  the  reading  of  the  best  books  because 
of  poor  teaching  in  literature.  It  is  worse  to  have  a  similar  dislike 
associated  with  ethical  reflection. 

In  the  second  place  the  teacher  must  possess  special  knowledge 
and  special  skill.  He  should  be  familiar  with  the  principles  of  ethics, 
with  the  classic  literature  on  the  subject,  and  with  the  history  of 
ethical  thinking  and  of  moral  evolution.  It  is  especially  needful 
that  he  be  trained  in  the  application  of  ethical  principles  to  the  con- 
crete problems  of  present-day  life.  Since  nothing  is  more  disastrous 
in  moral  instruction  than  academic  tediousness,  it  is  here  particu- 
larly that  the  teacher  must  possess  that  peculiar  skill  which  can 
bring  together  the  near  and  the  remote,  the  immediately  practical 
and  the  ideal,  in  ways  interesting,  dignified,  and  productive.  Here, 
more  perhaps  than  in  the  teaching  of  any  other  subject,  are  required 

1  For  illustration  of  one  type  of  method,  see  "  Moral  Instruction  in  the  High  School," 
by  Prank  C.  Sharp,  University  of  Wisconsin  Bull.  No.  303  ;  High  School  Series,  No.  7. 

82750°— 18 2 


10  MORAL  VALUES   IN    SECONDARY   EDUCATION. 

those  special  personal  qualities  by  which  the  confidence  of  young 
people  is  won  and  retained.  Among  the  temptations  for  the  teacher 
to  avoid  are  "gush, "  censoriousness,  cheap  familiarity  for  the  sake 
of  "  getting  down  to  their  level,  "  and  the  pedantry  which  emphasizes 
trivialities  and  forgets  what  boys  and  girls  may  reasonably  be  ex- 
pected to  outgrow  of  their  own  accord.  Nowhere  is  there  greater 
need  for  tact,  for  broad,  human  sympathy  and  for  the  example  w hich 
speaks  far  more  convincingly  than  the  most  effective  word. 

Where  these  requirements  have  been  met,  and  where  the  other 
agencies  of  the  school  cooperate  in  the  interests  of  the  moral  aim,  the 
advantages  of  supplementing  these  agencies  by  scheduled  moral  in- 
struction offset  the  objections  commonly  urged.  The  desirability, 
therefore,  of  introducing  such  courses  into  any  given  school  will  de- 
pend upon  the  special  conditions  in  that  school. 

Whatever  conclusion  may  be  reached  regarding  the  desirability  of 
a  distinct  course  in  moral  instruction  in  any  given  school,  it  is  clear 
that  the  subjects  taught,  the  teaching  methods,  the  spirit  of  the  class- 
room and  of  the  school,  all  the  activities  both  in  the  regular  day's 
work  and  after  school  hours,  can  be  employed  to  widen  and  deepen 
the  pupils'  understanding  of  right  living,  to  encourage  a  genuine, 
abiding  love  of  the  finer  modes  of  behavior,  and  to  form  right  habits. 
How  can  this  be  accomplished? 

m.  MORAL  VALUES  IN  PUPIL  ACTIVITIES. 

First  in  importance  as  a  moral  agency  should  be  placed  the  actual 
performances  of  the  pupils  themselves.  It  is  one  thing  to  hear  right 
conduct  praised  or  see  it  exemplified;  it  is  quite  another  and  more 
necessary  thing  for  the  boys  and  girls  themselves  to  do  the  acts. 
Character  is  essentially  a  matter  of  action,  the  habitual  performance 
of  certain  kinds  of  deeds  rather  than  others;  and  the  only  genuine 
way  of  learning  how  to  do  these  deeds  is  to  do  them,  just  as  tennis 
is  learned  only  by  playing  it.  Nobody  really  understands  what  "  re- 
sponsibility "  means  until  he  has  been  intrusted  with  a  task  that  has 
succeeded  or  has  failed  because  of  him.  So  with  respect  to  "  service," 
"generosity,"  and  all  the  possible  terms  of  the  moral  vocabulary; 
any  genuine  comprehension  of  them,  as  Aristotle  pointed  out,  re- 
quires practice  in  the  deeds  themselves  first. 

The  better  schooling  of  our  times  has  seized  upon  the  fact,  not  only 
that  this  practice  must  come  first  in  the  order  of  learning,  but  that 
pupils  take  to  activity  so  much  more  readily  than  they  do  to  the 
relatively  passive  business  of  listening  or  reading.  They  are  eager 
to  engage  in  athletics,  to  run  a  school  paper,  to  dance,  to  act  plays, 
to  build,  to  do  dozens  of  things  that  merely  sitting  at  a  desk,  study- 
ing and  reciting,  will  never  permit.  One  of  the  richest  veins  in  all 


MORAL  VALUES   IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION.  11 

education  has  been  tapped  in  recent  years  by  turning  these  energies 
to  account.  Instead  of  frowning,  as  in  older  days,  upon  the  desire  of 
the  young  to  act  upon  their  own  initiative,  we  have  learned  that  only 
upon  these  very  interests  can  be  laid  the  surest  basis  for  healthy 
growth. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  if  the  school  is  to  help  its  pupils  to  live 
later  the  kind  of  lives  which  membership  in  the  American  democ- 
racy requires,  provision  must  be  made  for  them  to  live  such  lives  in 
school  years.  Those  ideals  of  a  nobler  human  order  will  mean  most 
to  them  which  they  have  actually  attempted  to  put  into  practice 
themselves.  As  Dr.  Felix  Adler  once  put  it : 

With  progress  toward  moral  personality  as  the  aim,  the  life  of  the  school 
should  anticipate  the  organization  of  all  society  along  ethical  lines  by  creating 
In  the  minds  of  the  pupils  the  picture  of  such  a  society.  From  that  life  they 
are  to  catch  the  ideal  which  it  is  intended  to  symbolize. 

In  the  light  of  this  viewpoint,  consider  to  what  a  slight  extent  the 
more  generous  impulses  can  be  developed  by  the  kind  of  school  pro- 
cedure which  ordinarily  prevails.  In  too  many  schools  the  aim  en- 
couraged by  the  actual  conduct  of  the  work  is  of  the  tjpQ  which  lays 
major  stress  upon  "  looking  out  all  the  time  for  number  one."  For 
instance,  is  not  prompting  in  recitation  too  often  punished  without  a 
thought  that  back  of  this  offense  is  a  kindly  desire,  which,  instead  of 
being  thwarted,  should  rather  be  encouraged  to  express  itself  in  some 
form  of  genuine  helpfulness  1 

This  is  not  to  imply  that  any  less  training  is  needed  in  self-reliance, 
honesty,  perseverance,  obedience  to  authorities,  respect  for  the  rights 
of  others.  These  still  remain  fundamental.  But  we  have  been 
obliged  at  last  to  recognize  that  equally  necessary  to  preparation  for 
democratic  life  is  practice  in  worthy  cooperation  and  worthy  initia- 
tive. We  have  learned  that  there  is  something  woefully  lacking  in 
a  citizenship  which  does  no  more  than  obey  the  law  and  refrain  from 
infringement  upon  the  rights  of  neighbors.  We  can  no  longer  con- 
ceive of  democracy  as  mainly  a  matter  of  everyone  for  himself  within 
the  limits  of  the  law.  That  conception  is  still  too  common.  It  is 
symbolized,  as  Dr.  Dewey  has  pointed  out,  by  the  very  equipment  of 
the  ordinary  classroom.  Each  pupil  sits  by  himself  at  a  desk,  which 
is  fastened  irremovably  to  its  place.  Each  occupies  his  own  little 
island,  from  which  as  a  general  rule  communication  with  other  islands 
is  forbidden.  This  rigid  separation  typifies  the  importance  attached 
to  the  virtues  of  noninterference.  The  class  acts  as  a  group  only  in 
obedience  to  orders  from  headquarters. 

Such  a  method  overlooks  two  weighty  considerations:  In  the  first 
place,  while  even  a  democracy  must  obey  orders,  the  rules  are  not 
decreed  by  an  autocrat;  they  are  willed  by  the  group  itself.  Re- 


12  MORAL  VALUES   IN   SECONDARY   EDUCATION. 

sponsibility  for  the  success  or  failure  in  the  execution  rests  with 
those  who  not  only  obey  the  orders  but  make  them.  This  is  true  of 
more  than  the  administration  of  school  routine.  A  school  magazine, 
for  instance,  is  in  this  sense  a  democratic  institution  to  the  extent 
that  the  students  themselves  initiate  and  run  it.  It  chooses  its  own 
policies  and  selects  its  own  managers  to  carry  them  out.  It  is  not 
democratic  when  outside  pressure,  like  that  of  the  teachers,  is  neces- 
sary to  keep  it  up. 

Secondly,  the  members  of  a  democracy  must  be  animated  by  the 
spirit  of  cooperation,  a  spirit  more  constructive  than  merely  refrain- 
ing from  interference,  the  spirit  of  freely  working  together  for  the 
positive  good  of  the  whole.  Initiative  is  encouraged  in  order  that 
better  contributions  may  be  offered  to  the  common  task.  In  short, 
in  a  democracy  ethically  motivated,  everyone  does  his  bit  in  behalf 
of  worthy  enterprises  which  he  has  helped  to  will  into  existence. 

This  conception,  we  repeat,  is  a  special  need  in  the  America  of  to- 
day and  to-morrow.  The  old  rule  of  "  each  for  himself  without  in- 
fringement "  has  proved  a  sadly  unserviceable  tool  for  our  changed 
and  changing  social  order.  Not  only  has  it  encouraged  an  irrespon- 
sibility which  opened  the  door  wide  to  downright  political  corruption ; 
it  has  blinded  us  as  a  people  to  the  shame  of  widespread  poverty, 
disease,  ignorance,  vice,  and  general  inefficiency  in  huge  masses  of 
our  population.  The  war  has  at  last  brought  home  to  us  the  fail- 
ure of  our  individualistic  methods  to  solve  the  problems  which  call 
for  collective  action.  We  may  be  certain  that  the  years  ahead  will 
hear  an  increasing  emphasis  upon  the  note  of  essentially  cooperative 
enterprise.  We  shall  be  challenged  as  a  nation  to  prove  that  effi- 
ciency is  no  monopoly  of  autocratic  governments,  but  that  self- 
governing  democracies  too  can  learn  to  work  together  effectively. 
Our  newly  reanimated  pride  in  our  country  should  therefore  spur 
us  to  fresh  concern  for  the  type  of  personal  character  which  demo- 
cratic living  is  especially  commissioner!  to  promote. 

Now,  it  is  too  much  to  expect  school  life  to  exhibit  the  perfect 
working  of  a  democracy  conceived  in  these  terms.  In  the  matter  of 
freedom,  for  example,  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  permit  inexperi- 
enced children  to  enjoy  the  liberties  which  only  mature  persons  can 
manage.  But  the  principles  of  initiative  and  cooperation  are  capa- 
ble of  being  put  into  practice  in  many  ways  indeed  that  high-school 
pupils  can  well  employ.  We  want  school  life  to  be  organized  around 
the  idea,  not  that  each  student  is  to  do  his  utmost  to  get  a  better 
mark  than  his  neighbor,  but  that  all  are  expected  to  make  a  free 
offering  of  their  best  to  the  progress  of  the  class  and  the  school  as  a 
whole  and  through  these,  of  the  larger  community.  Bearing  this  in 
mind,  let  us  consider  a  few  typical  instances  of  the  resources  at  our 
command. 


MORAL  VALUES   IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION.  13 

Give  the  pupils  every  possible  chance  to  participate  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  school  life.  Compare,  for  example,  two  types  of 
assembly.  In  the  old-fashioned  school  the  pupils  gathered  to  sing  a 
song  or  two,  to  hear  the  principal  read  from  the  Bible,  to  listen  to  an 
address  from  the  principal  or  a  visitor,  and  to'  hear  individual 
"  star  "  pupils,  selected  by  the  teacher,  "  speak  pieces,"  likewise  se- 
lected from  above.  Except  for  the  singing  there  was  no  coopera- 
tion on  the  part  of  individuals  or  groups.  The  management  being  in 
the  hands  of  the  teachers,  there  was  little  or  no  chance  for  initiative 
on  the  part  of  the  pupils.  In  the  main,  the  chief  motive  to  which 
appeal  was  made  was  the  desire  for  individual  distinction,  a  motive 
at  best  inadequate,  since  only  the  few  had  a  chance  to  shine  as  elocu- 
tionists. 

To-day  the  better  type  of  assembly  is  run  by  the  pupils.  Its  suc- 
cess depends  not  on  the  execution  of  a  teacher's  decisions  by  a  few, 
but  on  the  voluntary  cooperation  of  all.  Working  with  a  faculty 
adviser,  they  select  the  program  and  the  ones  who  are  to  carry  it 
out.  It  is  a  striking  fact  that  where  this  is  the  case,  their  choice  so 
frequently  takes  the  form  of  a  dramatic  offering.  The  reasons  we 
need  not  stop  to  analyze.  The  significant  thing  is  the  opportunity 
here  afforded  for  the  interplay  of  initiative,  responsibility,  and  the 
spirit  of  teamwork.  A  class  responsible,  let  us  say,  for  a  dramatic 
performance  as  the  chief  item  on  the  program  of  a  given  date,  is  at 
once  put  to  it  as  a  group  to  do  its  best.  It  knows  from  experience 
what  it  means  for  auditors  to  be  bored  by  a  play  poorly  chosen  or 
poorly  acted.  Realizing  that  the  success  or  the  failure  depends 
chiefly  upon  itself,  it  feels  a  real  obligation  to  select  wisely.  It  must 
therefore  encourage  every  individual  in  its  membership  to  help  the 
enterprise  along.  He  must  do  his  share  to  choose  the  right  play,  to 
pick  the  most  competent  performers,  to  act  his  own  part  well  (even 
though  he  would  have  preferred  the  leading  role),  to  assist  in 
making  stage  properties,  and  in  general  to  express  and  to  stimulate 
the  team  spirit  without  which  the  undertaking  is  bound  to  fail. 

This  is  the  point  of  view  for  all  the  activities  of  the  school.  Hence 
the  value  of  pupil  self-government  wherever  such  a  scheme  represents 
a  genuine  cooperation  among  the  pupils  themselves  and  between 
the  pupils  and  the  teachers.  The  latter  are  not  at  all  to  abrogate 
their  functions.  The  main  point  is  the  intelligent  sharing  by  the 
pupils  themselves  in  the  responsibilities  of  their  own  school  com- 
munity. For  their  period  of  life,  the  school  is  or  should  be  the  spe- 
cial field  for  their  activities  as  citizens.  The  proper  performance  of 
these  activities  now  is  the  best  preparation  for  the  civic  duties  of  the 
years  to  follow. 

Hence  it  is  important  that  pupils  learn  from  experience  that, 
among  other  things,  the  law  of  the  school  is  aimed  at  their  best  in- 


14  MORAL   VALUES   IN    SECONDARY   EDUCATION. 

terest.  This  they  do  see  most  readily  when  their  social  consciousness 
is  enlisted  to  help  frame  and  enforce  the  regulations  under  which 
they  are  to  live.  Thus  in  one  of  our  high  schools  a  valuable  result 
was  reaped  from  an  experiment  in  leaving  the  care  of  the  study 
periods  to  the  pupils  without  supervision  by  the  teachers.  The 
scheme  worked  badly;  and  at  the  end  of  the  year,  the  faculty  voted 
its  abandonment.  The  situation  was  saved,  however,  by  the  student 
council.  It  requested  that  the  plan  be  given  another  trial.  It  saw 
that  the  matter  was  discussed  earnestly  in  all  the  classes,  proposed 
certain  modifications  and  pledged  the  student  body  to  faithful  per- 
formance. The  pledge  was  kept,  and  at  the  present  time  there  is 
little  likelihood  of  a  return  to  the  old  system. 

The  thing  of  special  value  in  affairs  of  this  kind  is  the  first-hand 
experience  of  the  students  in  meeting  the  problems  of  their  own 
corporate  life.  They  appreciate  more  readily  that  their  school  is 
a  community  with  certain  functions  to  perform  for  the  good  of  the 
entire  membership,  i.  e.,  that  it  must  safeguard  the  health  of  its 
members,  protect  them  against  injury  from  the  indifferent  or  ill- 
disposed,  bring  the  weakest  up  to  standard  in  intelligence,  refine- 
ment, and  moral  character,  and  encourage  all  to  reach  new  and  higher 
levels.  These  are  the  tasks  of  the  adult  citizenship  into  which  they 
are  later  to  enter.  They  k  -n,  and  perhaps  nothing  else  can  teach 
them  so  well,  what  these  tasks  require  in  the  way  of  free  and  generous 
cooperation.  How  much  their  understanding  of  certain  fundamental 
problems  of  democracy  is  furthered  may  be  gathered  from  the  fol- 
lowing testimony.  One  student  writes: 

Whether  the  system  of  unsupervised  study  periods  works  or  not  depends  upon 
each  member  of  the  group.  Some  are  unable  to  control  themselves.  They 
make  the  plan  fail  since  the  teacher  must  again  be  placed  in  charge.  Such  a 
backward  step  usually  takes  several  months  to  regain.  On  the  other  hand,  some 
study  periods  of  this  kind  may  be  carried  on  very  successfully  if  there  are 
present  enough  of  the  older  students  who  can  practice  self-control  and  are 
not  afraid  to  take  it  upon  themselves  to  remonstrate  with  the  younger  and 
more  unruly  pupils. 

Another  student  writes: 

Give  us  a  chance  to  do  something  on  our  own  responsibility.  The  academic 
part  of  school  life  offers  little  field  for  such  training.  Perhaps  we  are  too 
young  to  realize  the  importance  of  what  we  ought  to  be  learning.  But  if  we 
were  given  complete  control  of  such  matters  as  study  periods,  athletics,  as- 
semblies, and  social  functions,  even  if  mistakes  were  made,  it  would  not  be  a 
very  serious  matter.  But  I  doubt  if  many  mistakes  would  be  made,  as  even  the 
most  scatter-brained,  frivolous  people  at  our  age  turn  out  best  when  given 
responsible  positions. 

The  great  trouble  with  the  so-called  self-government  at  our  schools  is  that 
the  faculty  doesn't  seem  to  trust  us.  That  is  why  there  is  so  little  interest 
among  the  pupils  at  large.  They  feel  that  the  student  board  is  a  mere  figure- 
head. No  one  will  ever  be  interested  in  anything  unless  made  to  feel  that  the 
movement  or  institution  needs  his  help. 


MORAL  VALUES   IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION.  15 

These  declarations  convey  their  own  comment.  They  indicate 
incidentally  the  important  educative  influence  of  the  pupils  upon 
one  another.  That  "  even  the  scatter-brained,  frivolous  members 
turn  out  best  when  given  responsible  positions  "  is  undoubtedly  due 
not  only  to  their  sincere  interest  in  the  tasks  thus  intrusted  to  them, 
but  to  their  being  held  to  account  by  those  whose  favorable  judg- 
ment they  genuinely  respect,  namely,  their  own  peers.  A  lad  who 
for  one  reason  or  another  can  escape  with  a  passing  mark  from  his 
teacher  in  English  or  history  knows  that  bluff  will  not  succeed  with 
his  comrades.  For  a  game  lost  through  his  negligence,  or  for  a  per- 
formance or  an  outing  spoiled  by  his  poor  conduct,  he  is  certain  to 
hear  from  his  peers  with  a  sharpness  that  carries  home.  The  same  is 
true  of  more  than  reproof.  How  frequently  does  it  happen  that 
young  people  will  take  from  other  students  advice  that  they  reject 
when  it  comes  from  the  more  or  less  uncongenial  world  represented 
by  the  faculty !  Hence  the  wisdom  of  enlisting  in  the  school  manage- 
ment the  active  interest  of  those  to  whom  the  other  pupils  look  up. 
Democracy  rests  upon  public  opinion.  The  soundest  public  opinion 
is  generated  where  the  best  leaders  receive  the  amplest  encourage- 
ment. 

In  some  schools  the  chance  for  these  new  expressions  is  offered 
even  in  connection  with  what  has  always  seemed  to  be  peculiarly  and 
exclusively  the  concern  of  the  teacher,  namely,  the  choice  of  topics 
for  study  and  the  conduct  of  the  recitation.  Just  as  a  group  will 
make  itself  responsible  for  selecting  a  play  and  presenting  it,  so  in 
connection  with  the  regular  work  in  history  or  in  science,  let  us  say, 
for  example,  a  group  will  select  some  topic  for  investigation  and 
hold  itself  responsible  for  teaching  the  results  to  the  rest  of  the 
class.  For  illustration  consult  Scott's  Social  Education  and  Johns- 
ton's Modern  High  School,  chapter  4.1 

All  encouragement  should  be  given  to  cooperative  enterprises  in 
aid  of  philanthropies  and  other  forms  of  civic  welfare.  No  one 
can  fail  to  appreciate  the  moral  value  of  these  activities  after  seeing 
a  class  go  through  all  the  steps  involved  in  an  undertaking  such  as 
the  following:  A  class  which  had  become  interested  in  the  problem 
of  a  poor  family  decided  that  the  best  help  it  could  give  was  to 
raise  money  to  enable  the  daughter  to  take  a  two-year  course  at  a 
technical  school  instead  of  going  to  work  at  once.  The  value  of  what 
was  taught  by  this  discussion  alone  is  apparent.  Then  came  the  con- 
sideration of  ways  and  means,  candy  sales,  dramatic  performance, 
and  so  on.  The  problem  enlisted  the  participation  of  every  member 
of  the  class  in  one  committee  or  another.  From  the  beginning  to 
the  final  handing  over  of  the  money  to  the  settlement  worker  in 

1  In  this  chapter  see  especially  p.  260,  on  helping  backward  pupila 


16  MORAL  VALUES   IN   SECONDARY   EDUCATION. 

charge,  no  one  was  without  some  responsibility  to  his  class  for  a 
project  which  that  class  as  a  whole  had  voted. 

Last  summer  the  pupils  of  the  Ethical  Culture  School  cultivated 
8  acres  of  land  on  a  farm  near  New  York  City.  The  report  in  the 
school  paper,  after  mentioning  items  like  the  52,000  ears  of  corn,  the 
several  thousand  quarts  of  beans,  etc.,  which  were  raised  and  canned 
or  sold  outright,  says : 

What  was  most  encouraging,  however,  was  the  way  in  which  the  spirit  of 
cooperation  was  shown.  The  whole  project  was  in  itself  one  of  cooperation  with 
the  Government,  to  swell  the  food  supply  this  winter.  Our  work  was  done  by 
various  squads,  and  our  entertainments  were  provided  by  various  committees. 
The  way  the  boys  in  the  fields  and  the  girls  in  the  house  divided  the  labor 
efficiently  and  fairly  proved  that  cooperative  schemes  were  not  merely  ideal, 
but  also  practicable. 

Our  experience  on  the  farm  this  summer  has  been  one  we  shall  not  easily 
forget.  We  have  had  a  very  jolly  time,  we  have  been  able  to  help  our  country 
along  lines  for  which  we  were  best  fitted,  and  we  have  gained  a  knowledge  of 
the  true  worth  of  cooperation,  which  is  of  inestimable  value  to  us.  *  *  * 
When  the  actual  time  to  leave  came,  we  felt  a  bit  sorry,  but  in  other  ways 
happy.  We  have  had  a  fine  vacation,  a  vacation  which  was  well  spent.  It 
makes  us  feel  so  much  better  to  know  that  we  have  actually  produced  some- 
thing for  the  common  good;  that  what  we  have  produced  means  something; 
that  it  counts.  *  *  -*  We  have  worked  for  a  good  and  practical  end,  and 
in  doing  that  we  have  each  learned  precious  lessons  in  living  together,  in  work- 
ing together,  in  laughing  together,  and  in  facing  certain  problems  together. 

Another  illustration:  In  a  small  western  town  a  class  in  civics 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  there  was  need  for  improvement  in  the 
community.  It  arranged  a  series  of  public  meetings,  invited  parents 
to  attend  and  experts  to  deliver  addresses.  As  an  outcome  it  helped 
to  secure,  among  other  results,  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  gar- 
bage collection  for  the  town,  the  employment  of  a  municipal  nurse, 
and  the  establishment  of  a  bathing  beach  with  bathhouses  for  the 
public  use.  Even  if  every  school  can  not  teach  citizenship  by  such 
immediate  practice  as  this,  the  principle  can  be  applied  to  local  con- 
ditions in  a  variety  of  ways.  The  chief  value  consists  in  learning 
how  to  work  for  worthy  social  ends  through  voluntary  cooperation. 

Let  it  be  repeated,  however,  that  the  way  to  cultivate  the  spirit  of 
service  is  to  begin  with  rendering  service  to  one's  own  immediate 
community.  Hence  the  desirability  of  membership  in  the  school 
orchestra  or  glee  club,  of  running  the  school  paper,  managing  the 
school  bank,  assisting  backward  pupils,  supplying  stage  carpentry, 
making  bookshelves,  umbrella  stands,  waste-paper  baskets,  flower 
boxes,  apparatus  for  the  laboratories,  or  repairing  school  furniture. 

Nor  should  it  be  overlooked  that  services  of  this  kind  draw  the 
pupils  more  closely  to  their  school.  It  is  a  matter  of  familiar  ob- 
servation that  people  are  apt  to  become  more  firmly  attached  to  an 


MORAL  VALUES  IN    SECONDARY   EDUCATION.  17 

institution  by  reason  of  what  they  themselves  do  for  it  than  by  virtue 
of  what  it  does  for  them.  Young  people  who  have  helped  to  build 
a  school  playground  or  prepare  a  school  garden  are  much  more  likely 
to  keep  the  grounds  in  good  shape  than  those  who  come  into  a  place 
where  everything  has  been  made  ready  for  them  beforehand.  Like 
adults  they  cherish  that  to  which  they  have  given  themselves.  The 
experiences  related  by  Booker  T.  Washington  in  "  Working  with  the 
Hands,"  have  been  proved  true  elsewhere;  to  care  for  your  com- 
munity, perform  a  voluntary  service  for  it. 

An  illustration  of  what  can  be  done  in  this  direction  in  urban  high 
schools  is  contained  in  the  following  report  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  new  pupils  were  registered  in  the  Washington  Irving  High  School 
in  New  York.  As  the  girls  from  the  elementary  school  entered — 

They  were  met  at  the  door  by  a  reception  committee  of  pupils  who  made  them 
feel  perfectly  at  home  and  showed  them  just  what  to  do.  Each  member  escorted 
a  new  girl  to  the  registration  table  where  26  young  ladies  recorded  the  entrants. 

One  whose  last  name  began  with  K  formed  in  line  with  the  others  under  the 
placard  K,  or  if  her  name  was  Robinson,  she  walked  over  to  the  girl  under  the 
sign  R  and  told  her  all  about  herself.  After  she  had  registered,  she  found  at 
her  side  a  delightful,  chatty  girl,  who  treated  her  as  if  she  had  known  her  all 
her  life.  This  girl  took  her  through  the  building  and  showed  her  all  about  her 
alma  mater  to  be.  She  asked  her  what  she  was  particularly  interested  in. 
Did  she  like  debating  or  music?  Well,  then  she  must  be  sure  to  Join  the  musical 
and  debating  clubs.  And  she  took  her  over  and  introduced  her  to  the  presidents 
of  these  organizations. 

All  this  time  she  had  not  met  a  single  teacher,  nor  had  she  received  a  single 
order  or  command.  She  had  simply  been  welcomed  to  her  future  alma  mater  by 
her  equals,  who  were  glad  that  she  had  come,  and  who  hoped  that  she  would 
remain  to  honor  the  school,  to  educate  herself  in  the  finest  sense,  and  to  form 
lifelong  friendships  begun  already  on  her  first  day. 

More  than  1,300  applications  for  admission  were  received.  The  chairman  of 
the  ushers  saw  that  every  girl  was  taken  care  of  and  she  seemed  to  be  in  a 
dozen  places  at  once,  always  pleasant  and  hospitably  smiling.  The  principal 
walked  about  the  school  delighted.  He  knew  that  the  impression  these  hun- 
dreds of  girls  were  getting  on  their  first  day  would  abide  and  would  strongly 
initiate  an  attitude  of  cheerfulness  and  courtesy  throughout  the  school  life. 
"  How  much  better  is  this,"  said  he,  "  than  having  the  new  girls  met  by  a  corps 
of  teachers  tired  out  with  writing  down  names.  Listen:  Did  you  hear  that?" 
He  was  standing  near  the  main  entrance  of  the  school,  and  a  "  Glad  to  meet 
you  "  rang  out  clear  and  hearty. 

"  Glad  to  meet  you,"  the  principal  repeated.  "  Why,  if  the  teachers  were  driv- 
ing away  at  writing  down  name  after  name  would  they  have  time  for  a  greeting 
like  that?  Would  they  feel  like  giving  a  handshake  and  a  smile?  People  are 
wondering  why  so  many  youngsters  run  away  from  school  or  get  working 
papers  as  soon  as  they  are  of  age.  Why  don't  they  stop  to  think  a  minute  and 
consider  the  spirit  in  the  usual  schools?  Nobody  smiles,  nobody  has  time  for 
courtesy,  nobody  tries  to  make  the  boy  or  girl  feel  at  home.  Everybody  has 
something  to  growl  about,  to  demand,  to  enforce.  If  you  go  to  a  restaurant  or 
a  theater,  they  don't  try  to  order  you  about  or  to  punish  you.  They  try  to  make 

32750°— 18 3 


18  MORAL   VALUES  IN   SECONDARY   EDUCATION. 

you  feel  at  ease.  They  want  you  to  come  again.  If  the  schools  tried  this 
method,  the  number  of  pupils  who  leave  before  they  finish  their  course  would 
decrease  as  by  miracle. 

Note  the  importance  of  what  those  pupils  received  who  contributed 
their  assistance.  It  is  true  that  only  a  small  number  out  of  the  en- 
tire student  body  enjoyed  this  particular  opportunity.  The  prin- 
ciple, nevertheless,  remains  fruitful,  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say 
thac  the  greatest  step  forward  in  the  pedagogy  of  character  build- 
ing will  be  taken  by  those  schools  that  find  methods  of  enlisting 
every  one  of  their  students  in  activities  of  cooperative  service. 

IV.  THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  INTERPRETING  EXPERIENCE  AND 
SUGGESTING  NEW  IDEALS. 

In  reacting  to-day  against  formal  teaching  and  in  emphasizing 
the  need  of  learning  by  experience,  there  is  danger  of  going  to  the 
extreme  of  relying  exclusively  upon  the  latter  resource.  How  essen- 
tial it  is  for  the  pupils  actually  to  live  out  for  themselves  the  prin- 
ciples of  right  conduct  we  have  here  attempted  to  enforce.  But  it 
needs  also  to  be  urged  that  for  our  boys  and  girls  to  live  through 
certain  experiences  is  not  enough.  What  is  most  valuable  in  these 
experiences  must  be  interpreted  to  them;  the  social  and  ethical  im- 
plications must  somewhere  and  at  some  time  be  lifted  very  definitely 
into  conscious  understanding  and  volition.1 

To  appreciate  how  futile  it  is  to  trust  "  experience  "  alone  to  im- 
prove character  we  need  only  note  how  often  it  happens,  for  instance, 
that  boys  get  from  their  athletic  experience  little  other  than  a  certain 
coarsening  of  their  moral  fiber. 

To  get  the  most  out  of  an  "  experience  "  there  must  be  more  or  less  under- 
standing of  its  better  possibilities.  A  boy  who  is  disgruntled  because  he  thinks 
he  is  a  good  pitcher  but  is  obliged  to  play  center  field  may  be  forced  by  his 
comrades  to  do  his  allotted  share  in  the  work  of  his  team,  and  thus,  according 
to  some  teachers,  be  educated  into  obedience  to  a  group  will.  The  simple  fact 
remains,  nevertheless,  that  this  experience  is  of  no  value  unless  its  ethical 
significance  is  grasped.  Left  to  himself,  the  lad  may  get  no  more  out  of  the 
situation  than  a  mood  of  ugliness.  Par  from  being  "  socialized,"  he  may  feel 
nothing  But  antisocial  emotions.  A  word  or  two  of  interpretation  may  do 
much,  however,  to  send  the  boy  back  to  his  undesired  post  with  a  clearer  no- 
tion of  responsibility  and  a  helpful  resolve  to  live  up  to  it.  A  member  of  one 
of  the  writer's  classes  told  of  a  pupil  who  had  received  help  in  a  situation  of 
this  sort.  Disliking  his  position  on  the  school  team,  the  lad  had  resigned, 

1  Among  the  good  results  that  hav«  come  from  the  "  formal-discipline  "  controversy  has 
been  the  freshened  conviction  that  returns  in  character  building  can  not  be  expected  to 
occur  automatically  and  inevitably  from  training  in  certain  given  habits  like  accuracy, 
perseverance,  etc.  Shopwork,  for  instance,  by  requiring  faithful  craftsmanship  would 
seem  to  offer  unique  occasion  for  the  pupil  to  become  acquainted  with  standards  of  honest 
achievement.  We  may  be  sure,  however,  that  unless  this  ideal  is  brought  specifically  to 
his  attention,  taken  to  heart  as  an  ideal,  and  rocnforced  by  teaching  outside  the  work- 
shop, there  is  lees  likelihood  of  his  deriving  this  profit  from  hia  hours  at  the  bench. 


MORAL  VALUES  IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION.  19 

against  the  protests  of  his  fellow  athletes.  A  month  later  he  was  allowed  to 
play  a  leading  r61e  In  a  performance  of  "Julius  Caesar,"  where  he* acquitted 
himself  with  all  credit.  His  teacher  thereupon  reminded  him  of  the  part  con- 
tributed to  his  success  by  the  obscure  but  none  the  less  important  efforts  of 
the  other  actors.  The  boy  was  ashamed  and  saw  his  selfishness  in  its  true  light. 
Whatever  the  experience,  it  counts  for  most  when  its  fuller  implications  are 
thus  comprehended ;  and  here  the  clearer  and  wider  insight  of  the  teacher  may 
render  valuable  aid.1 

Even  at  its  best  a  group  activity  can  do  no  more  than  adjust  the 
participants  to  the  ethical  standards  of  that  group,  whereas  moral 
education,  especially  for  pupils  in  their  teens,  should  aim  rather  at 
the  creation  of  constantly  higher  levels  of  right  relationship.  Every 
teacher  knows  how  a  group  can  often  be  led  to  raise  its  moral  level  by 
suggestions  from  the  teacher  to  the  leading  spirits,  who  thereupon 
win  the  others  over.  Consider,  for  example,  the  success  of  some 
schools  in  getting  the  code  of  the  honor  system  to  displace  the  pupils' 
own  code  in  which  cheating  is  regarded  as  clever.  What  moral  in- 
struction does  is  to  attempt  more  systematically  to  secure  these  better 
interpretations  of  experience  and  to  suggest  opportunities  for  experi- 
ences still  worthier.  For  a  school  to  forget  this  need  for  increasingly 
finer  codes  is  to  be  untrue  to  its  function  as  an  agency  of  progress. 

By  interpreting  experiences,  then,  we  mean  something  more  and 
other  than  offering  boys  a  list  of  reasons  why,  for  example,  they 
should  play  their  games  fairly.  We  have  in  mind  rather  the  attempt 
to  create  a  background  of  vivid  ideals  for  the  whole  of  life.  For 
instance,  it  is  not  sufficient  that  the  pupil  be  indignant  at  a  wrong 
which  he  himself  has  suffered  from  unfair  play.  His  experience 
should  be  made  to  contribute  to  a  conception  of  manhood  that  will 
feel  scorn  for  meanness  and  injustice  in  any  form;  and,  best  of  all, 
it  should  help  him  shape  for  himself  a  life  plan  wherein  a  readiness 
to  champion  just  causes  is  a  leading  principle. 

Ethical  interpretation,  in  short,  may  be  regarded  as  a  necessary 
bridge  between  two  sets  of  experiences ;  that  is,  between  the  conduct 
already  performed  and  the  better  sort  which  is  yet  to  be  practiced.  If 
this  seems  to  be  imposing  adult  conceptions  upon  minds  too  young, 
let  us  remember  that  if  these  higher  standards  are  not  held  up  in  the 
years  of  adolescence,  there  is  that  much  less  chance  of  their  being 
accepted  later  when  the  character  has  grown  more  fixed.  It  is  an 
unwarranted  extreme  to  maintain  that  every  ideal  presented  to  young 
people  must  be  capable  of  immediate  translation  into  action.  Like 
childhood  dreams  of  a  distinguished  career,  many  a  vision  cherished 
in  youth  is  no  less  precious  for  being  obliged  to  wait  long  indeed  for 
the  chance  to  be  put  into  practice. 

*  Henry  Neumann  :  "  Some  Misconception  of  Moral  Education."  International  Journal 
of  Ethics,  April,  1912.  Also  in  "  Second  International  Moral  Education  Congress— * 
Papers  Contributed  by  American  Writers,"  2  West  Sixty-fourth  Street,  New  York. 


20  MORAL  VALUES  IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 

That  the  ideals  suggested  in  school  will  fail  to  take  hold  in  num- 
berless instances  is  to  be  expected.  Aside  from  the  fact  that  a  truly 
scientific  psychology  of  character  is  still  scarcely  in  its  infancy,  we 
must  reckon  with  the  circumstance  that  the  best  efforts  of  the  school 
are  constantly  handicapped  by  the  lower  tone  of  the  environment 
outside.  Surely,  however,  this  is  no  reason  for  abandoning  the  at- 
tempt to  establish  the  worthier  standards  by  every  method  at  our 
disposal. 

Much  of  the  controversy  over  this  problem  would  disappear  if 
we  remembered  that  we  are  not  confronted  with  a  choice  between 
experience  on  the  one  hand  and  interpretation  on  the  other.  If  the 
error  of  the  past  has  been  to  rely  upon  formal  teaching,  it  is  no  solu- 
tion to  turn  now  exclusive!}'  to  another  one-sided  method.  The  rem- 
edy would  seem  to  lie  in  getting  the  most  out  of  every  resource 
available. 

What  are  these  resources?  We  have  already  considered  the  social 
activities  and  the  problem  of  scheduled  moral  instruction.  Let  us 
turn  next  to  the  rich  possibilities  in  the  various  daily  studies, 

V.  ETHICAL  VALUES  IN  THE  VARIOUS  STUDIES. 

The  value  of  any  of  the  subjects  in  the  curriculum  is  measured  by 
the  importance  of  the  help  it  offers  the  pupil  in  meeting  his  many 
life  problems.  It  devolves  upon  the  teacher,  therefore,  to  make  each 
subject  yield  its  utmost  in  the  way  of  moral  inspiration  and  better 
understanding  of  what  right  living  signifies.  A  wealth  of  oppor- 
tunity is  opened  in  this  direction  when  once  we  conceive  right  living 
in  the  broad  sense  assumed  by  this  report.  It  is  not  at  all  necessary 
that  a  "  moral  "  be  tagged  to  every  lesson.  The  point  is  simply  that 
wherever  the  day's  work  offers  the  chance  to  create  a  new  ideal  or  put 
new  meaning  into  an  old  one,  or  to  broaden  or  deepen  the  student's 
understanding  of  human  excellence,  the  chance  should  be  utilized 
with  every  confidence  that  the  time  thus  spent  is  eminently  worth 
while. 

1.    SOCIAL  STUDIES. 

Dealing  as  they  do  so  pointedly  with  the  relationships  of  individ- 
uals and  of  classes,  nations,  and  other  groups,  such  studies  as  history, 
geography,  civics,  and  economics  present  the  teacher  with  unique  oc- 
casion to  clarify  his  pupils'  comprehension  of  moral  right  and  wrong. 

In  grades  10,  11,  and  12  these  subjects  can  be  so  taught  as  to  bring 
home  certain  large  conceptions  like  that  of  social  heredity,  i.  e.,  the 
truth  that  the  acts  of  one  generation  bear  fruit  for  good  or  ill  in  the 
lives  of  the  generations  that  follow.  For  instance,  when  a  ship 
landed  in  Jamestown  in  1619  with  a  cargo  of  slaves,  the  consequences 
of  that  act  appeared  over  200  years  later  in  all  the  tragedies 


MORAL  VALUES   IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION.  21 

of  the  Civil  War.  Our  pupils  will  be  better  citizens  if  they  form  the 
habit  of  forecasting  the  effect  likely  to  be  produced  upon  future 
generations  by  what  society  is  doing  or  failing  to  do  at  the  present 
time. 

A  second  conception  of  this  kind  is  that  of  social  progress.  Too 
frequent  an  obstacle  to  social  advance  is  the  inability  of  great  masses 
of  people  to  understand  that  prevailing  practices,  in  spite  of  their 
long  and  apparently  secure  intrenchment,  should  and  can  be  changed 
for  the  better.  One  of  the  aims  of  history  teaching  should  be  to 
show  how  man  has  improved  upon  his  customs  and  institutions,  and 
to  encourage  the  conviction  that  further  change  is  still  desirable  and 
possible.  As  Prof.  Robinson  says  in  The  New  History,  there  is  every 
need  to  throw  the  weight  of  our  influence  on  the  side  of  the  new 
truth  which  has  not  yet  won  recognition  rather  than  on  the  side  of 
what  is  already  well  established : 

At  every  crossing  on  the  road  that  leads  to  the  future,  each  progressive  spirit 
is  opposed  by  a  thousand  men  appointed  to  guard  the  past.  Let  us  have  no 
fear  lest  the  fairest  towers  of  former  days  be  sufficiently  defended.  The  least 
that  the  most  trained  among  us  can  do  is  not  to  add  to  the  immense  weight 
which  nature  drags  along. 

Care  must  be  exercised,  however,  to  keep  young  people  from  mini- 
mizing the  good  even  in  institutions  which  need  reconstruction. 
The  first  essential  to  making  the  environment  over  for  the  better  is  a 
genuine  appreciation  of  what  still  deserves  to  be  honored.  In  this 
connection  pupils  should  be  reminded  how  largely  to-day's  advance 
over  the  pasc  is  du£  to  the  very  labors  of  which  they  may  now  be 
tempted  to  think  lightly.  For  example,  we  know  vastly  more  about 
America  to-day  than  Columbus  knew,  but  only  because  of  what  he 
achieved.  u  A  dwarf  perched  upon  the  shoulders  of  a  giant  'r  sees 
farther  than  the  giant  does;  but  he  should  remember  why. 

The  social  studies  present  an  opportunity  for  the  teacher  to  clarify 
those  misused  terms  "liberty"  and  "equality."  There  is  a  better 
reason  for  prizing  American  freedom  than  the  fact  that  it  permits 
one  to  do  as  he  pleases  within  the  limits  of  noninterference  with 
others.  On  moral  grounds,  freedom  is  the  opportunity  to  express 
what  in  each  human  being  is  best*  Our  political  liberty,  therefore, 
is  to  be  cherished  for  the  opportunity  which  it  affords  the  humblest 
citizen  not  to  do  as  he  chooses,  but  to  share  to  the  full  extent  of  his 
unique  powers  in  the  common  responsibility  for  the  improvement  of 
American  life.  Emphasis  should  be  placed  upon  the  desire  to  par- 
ticipate, in  common  duties  rather  than  upon  the  enjoyment  of  privi- 
leges. The  hope  of  the  recent  revolution  in  Russia  is  that  talented 
men  and  women,  instead  of  being  sent  to  Siberia  as  heretofore,  may 
now  be  encouraged  when  they  offer  their  gifts  to  their  country.  Po- 
litical freedom  is  to  be  prized  for  providing  such  a  chance.  This  is 


22  MORAL  VALUES  IN  SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 

the  reason  why  voluntary  group  activities  on  the  part  of  the  pupils 
afford  such  excellent  preparation  for  citizenship.  The  idea  to  be 
stressed  in  these  group  undertakings  is  the  advantage  of  participat- 
ing voluntarily  in  the  common  responsibility. 

The  subject  of  equality  may  be  treated  in  like  manner.  Americans 
are  far  from  equal  in  intelligence,  character,  and  power.  Here  is  an 
excellent  occasion  to  discuss  with  the  pupils  the  moral  basis  of  re- 
spect and  superiority.  Men  are  morally  equal  in  the  sense  that  each 
is  presumed  to  be  capable  of  appreciating  his  duties  and  of  trying  to 
live  up  to  them.  The  most  unlettered  man  is  dignified  by  the  fact 
that  he  possesses  this  mark  of  what  is  essentially  human.  Freedom 
and  equality,  therefore,  are  tributes  to  the  dignity  suggested  by 
men's  possibilities,  not  by  their  actual  accomplishments.  If  the 
right  to  vote  rested  upon  perfect  fitness  for  civic  responsibility, 
which  of  us  would  be  wise  enough  and  good  enough  to  merit  the 
franchise?  Equality  assumes  that  each  can  try  to  be  his  best.  Since 
this  best  varies,  however,  with  the  individual,  political  equality 
should  be  regarded  as  a  means  of  permitting  the  valuable  inequali- 
ties to  make  their  contribution.  Expertness  should  not  be  sup- 
pressed or  handicapped  by  caste  restrictions  of  any  kind  whatso- 
ever. 

With  this  conception  of  freedom  and  equality  must  go  a  corre- 
sponding respect  for  superiority,  that  is,  for  superior  ability  not 
chiefly  in  money-making,  but  in  artistic,  scientific,  philosophical,  po- 
litical, and  moral  achievement.  America  should  disprove  the  state- 
ment that  democracy  levels  downward. 

Democracy  also  requires  ethical  attitudes  toward  the  relatively 
undeveloped.  The  idea  is  that  the  undeveloped  are  to  be  respected 
for  their  potential  excellence  and  that  the  highest  obligation  of  the 
more  privileged  is  to  give  the  handicapped  the  utmost  encouragement 
and  help  to  develop  their  own  unique  best. 

Other  instances  might  be  mentioned  to  illustrate  how  the  teacher 
may  enlighten  the  moral  judgment  of  his  pupils.  Back  of  the  laws 
of  every  State  lie  certain  moral  convictions  based  upon  the  experience 
of  generations ;  and  these  convictions,  such  as  respect  for  fundamental 
human  rights,  should  be  interpreted.  Elsewhere  in  this  report  refer- 
ence is  made  to  the  opportunities  for  pupils  to  learn  truths  of  civic 
relationship  by  practice.1 

The  present  world  crisis  suggests  another  occasion  presented  by 
the  social  studies,  the  chance  to  enter  into  a  sympathetic  apprecia- 

1  See  p.  13.  Consider,  for  example,  the  Insight  Into  a  necessary  field  of  civic  enterprise 
which  one  class  obtained  by  discussing  the  problem  of  how  It  could  best  help  a  family 
threatened  with  Incipient  tuberculosis.  Before  It  voted  to  make  Itself  responsible  for  the 
sending  of  a  quart  of  milk  every  day  and  to  urge  another  class  to  provide  a  dally  supply 
of  eggs,  it  learned  many  things  about  the  reasons  for  this  particular  case  of  distress,  and 
the  need,  among  others,  of  a  public  nurse  to  follow  up  the  required  care. 


MORAL  VALUES   IX    SECONDARY   EDUCATION.  23 

tion  of  national  ideals  other  than  our  own.  A  broad  respect  for 
peoples  who  are  different  from  us  is  by  no  means  incompatible  with 
a  fervent  love  of  America.  On  the  contrary,  American  patriotism 
can  be  purified  of  its  baser  elements  only  by  the  attempt  to  under- 
stand and  respect  nationalities  unlike  ourselves.  Respect  for  like- 
ness is  relatively  easy;  respect  for  diversity  is  harder;  but  for  that 
reason  it  needs  special  emphasis  in  the  school.  This  is  particularly 
necessary,  since  the  old  preponderance  of  a  single  racial  stock  in  our 
<•  -MHitry  no  longer  exists.  We  should  utilize  t'^  the  utmost  the  values 
in  this  diversity.  At  the  present  time  even  the  various  native  types, 
such  as  the  New  Englander,  the  southerner,  the  westerner,  can 
hardly  be  said  to  respect  their  different  points  of  view  as  much  as 
they  should. 

In  grades  7,  8,  and  9  the  conceptions  just  mentioned  can  scarcely 
be  developed  as  fully  as  in  the  later  grades;  yet  the  right  kind  of 
teacher  can  introduce  pupils  even  of  12  or  13  years  of  age  to 
something  of  the  point  of  view  herein  suggested,  and,  as  with  the 
older  pupils,  connect  that  point  of  view  with  the  problems  of  their 
own  group  life  in  home,  school,  and  community.  For  instance,  one 
of  the  most  important  lessons  in  citizenship  can  be  learned  in  the 
home  by  trying  to  get  on  properly  with  uncongenial  brothers  and 
sisters. 

At  no  time  in  the  secondary  school  ought  the  opportunity  be  over- 
looked for  character  building  through  the  inspiration  afforded  by 
the  study  of  great  lives.  Nor  should  the  admiration  of  the  pupils 
be  confined  to  the  heroes  of  their  own  country.  How  many  have  any 
real  sense  that  Washington  was  not  the  only  liberator  in  the  world? 
They  should  be  introduced  to  what  is  ennobling  in  the  lives  of  men 
and  women  in  other  lands,  e.  g.,  William  the  Silent,  St.  Francis  of 
Assisi,  Hugo  Grotius,  the  brothers  Grimm,  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  Sir 
Thomas  More,  Florence  Nightingale,  Louis  Pasteur — the  field  of 
stimulating  biography  is  rich. 

At  every  stage  much  can  be  accomplished  by  discussing  the  moral 
bearings  of  the  facts  about  group  life  with  which  history  is  essen- 
tially concerned. 

It  is  not  kings  and  dynasties,  campaigns  and  statutes,  that  we  have  to  study 
primarily,  but  problems;  and  problems  are  history  in  the  making.  Unless  the 
historian  can  find  the  moral  problem  In  the  event  of  the  past,  he  is  dealing 
only  with  dry  bones.1 

In  other  words,  since  people  are  obliged  in  every  age  to  learn  how 
to  live  together,  history  can  be  made  one  of  the  most  fruitful  sub- 
jects in  the  school  when  this  point  of  view  is  applied  to  problems  such 

1  Darld  8.  Muzzey  :  "  Ethical  Values  In  History."  Second  International  Moral  Educa- 
tion Congress — Papers  Contributed  by  American  Writers,  p.  109  (published  by  American 
Ethical  Union,  2  West  Sixty-fourth  Street,  New  York). 


24  MORAL  VALUES  IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 

as  the  following:  Ways  of  earning  a  living;  social  classes,  their 
conflicts  and  adjustments;  attitudes  toward  those  who  differ — toler- 
ance, intolerance,  democratic  appreciation,  and  encouragement;  patri- 
otism and  changes  in  the  conception  of  loyalty;  science  and  its  re- 
lation to  health,  industry,  transportation,  social  intercourse ;  war  and 
peace ;  education  ;*  recreation ;  changing  moral  standards.  The  chief 
value  of  any  such  study  should  be  the  light  that  it  throws  upon 
similar  problems  in  present  life. 

The  most  scrupulous  care  is  needed,  however,  to  guard  against 
pointing  a  moral  by  presenting  as  fact  what  sound  scholarship  in 
history  will  not  warrant.  Care  is  also  required  lest  pupils  get  false 
views  about  heroes  and  the  common  people.  To  make  history  a  mat- 
ter of  "  the  biographies  of  great  men  "  is  one  fallacy ;  to  put  all  the 
emphasis  upon  mass  action  and  slight  the  contribution  of  leadership 
is  another.  It  is  likewise  fallacious  to  overemphasize  the  economic 
interpretation  and  minimize  the  force  of  ideals. 

2.   LITEBATUBE. 

Literature  is  especially  rich  in  ethical  values.  Whatever  else  a 
literary  work  may  be,  it  is  essentially  an  attempt  to  offer  an  interpre- 
tation of  life.  Shakespeare  never  intended  his  plays  to  serve  as  ma- 
terial for  school  examinations.  He  tried  to  interest  his  audiences  in 
the  attempts  of  a  Brutus,  a  Macbeth,  a  Hamlet  to  work  out  certain 
big  life  problems;  and  he  outdid  his  fellow  dramatists  because  he 
accomplished  this  task  with  keener  insight  and  greater  artistic  skill. 
The  cue  for  the  teacher,  therefore,  is  to  help  his  pupils  evaluate  life's 
aims  more  soundly  because  of  the  truths  which  the  author  has  made 
more  striking  and  more  clear< 

This  does  not  at  all  require  that  the  literature  period  be  given 
solely  to  discussion  of  moral  questions.  The  literary  work  should 
first  and  last  be  enjoyed  in  the  spirit  that  sends  an  adult  to  the 
theater  or  to  a  novel  by  a  favorite  author  for  an  evening's  recrea- 
tion. The  characters  may  be  never  so  fine,  the  sentiments  never  so 
exalted  and  valuable;  but  unless  the  pupils  are  really  stirred,  what- 
ever moral  stimulus  the  poem  or  story  can  afford  will  fail  of  its 
object.  To  become  moving  forces  in  their  lives,  the  high  behaviors 
with  which  literature  deals  must  genuinely  be  admired  and  the  low 
behaviors  must  genuinely  be  condemned  by  the  young  people  them- 
selves. Therefore,  in  teaching  a  literary  work,  it  is  of  primary  im- 
portance that  what  the  pupils  read  is  first  enjoyed.  One  of  the 
surest  means  to  this  object  is  to  introduce  a  new  work  by  the  most 

1  Is  not  something  lacking  in  our  conception  of  history  teaching  when  pupils  are  grad- 
uated from  American  high  schools  without  the  slightest  acquaintance  with  the  labors  of 
men  like  Horace  Mann  in  behalf  of  public  education? 


MORAL   VALUES   IN    SECONDARY   EDUCATION.  25 

expressive  reading  of  which  the  teacher  is  capable.  Where  this  is 
clone,  it  frequently  happens  that  he  need  do  little  or  nothing  more  to 
make  the  literature  period  ethically  productive;  the  womanly  dignity 
of  Ellen  Douglas,  the  chivalry  of  Gareth,  the  modesty  of  Herve  Kiel, 
carry  their  own  appeal. 

Where  further  help  from  the  teacher  is  needed,  it  may  take  such 
form  as  the  following.  The  pupils  may  be  led  to  reflect  and  report 
upon  such  problems  as  these:  Why  do  we  admire  Brutus  in  spite  of 
his  failure  more  than  Mark  Antony,  the  successful?  Why  do  Dr. 
Hudson  and  other  critics  think  that  in  The  Merchant  of  Venice 
Shakespeare  shows  the  degrading  effect  of  persecution  upon  both 
Shy  lock  and  his  tormentors?  Or  the  discussion  might  institute  a 
comparison  between  the  influence  of  Lady  Macbeth  upon  her  hus- 
band and  the  power  for  good  exerted,  for  example,  by  the  wife  of 
Wendell  Phillips.  Or  the  pupils  might  be  asked  to  consider  how  far 
America  lives  up  to  the  ideals  of  Burns's  A  Man's  a  Man  for  A' 
That, 

In  general  the  literature  period  can  be  employed  to  extend  and  to, 
clarify  the  thinking  of  the  pupils  about  right  living  along  such  lines  ^ 
as  these:  What  objects  in  life  are  most  worth  while?    What  are  the/, 
soundest  standards  of  success  and  failure?     What  are  the  conse- 
quences, in  our  own  lives  and  in  those  of  others,  which  reach  beyond 
the  obvious,  immediate  end  of  our  endeavors?     What  are  the  per- 
sonal difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  noblest  behaviors?    How  can  these 
obstacles  be  overcome?    In  short,  whether  by  interpreting  the  mean- 
ing of  a  passage  or  scene  or  by  comparing  characters  or  by  stating 
as  clearly  as  possible  the  truths  which  the  book  illumines,  the  teacher 
should  connect  the  literature  with  the  lives  of  the  pupils,  remember-' 
ing  that  the  essential  function  of  literature  is  to  clarify  and  enrich 
the  understanding  of  life.     Not  simply  to  assist  them  in  forming 
their  own  judgments  upon  books  which  they  will  read  later  is  the 
goal,  but  to  help  them  reach  sound  conceptions  of  the  best  aims  for 
their  own  lives,  and  here  no  greater  help  can  be  offered  our  pupils 
than  to  consider  with  them  the 'truth  or  untruth  in  the  interpreta- 
tions of  life  presented  in  the  objects  of  their  study. 

As  in  other  subjects,  precious  material  for  character  building  is 
found  in  biographies.1 

Humor  in  the  school  no  longer  needs  apology.  The  contribution 
of  laughter  to  health  of  spirit  is  beyond  all  question.  The  teaching 
of  literature  can  be  specially  helpful  in  refining  the  sense  of  humor 
by  cultivating  taste  for  fun  of  the  cleaner,  kindlier,  subtler  sort. 

See  also  section  8,  Art  Studies. 


I8ee  p.  28,  first  paragraph  under  Natural  Science*. 


26  MORAL  VALUES  IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 

3.   FOREIGN    LANGUAGES. 

The  study  of  foreign  languages  gives  the  opportunity  to  enter 
appreciately  into  the  lives  and  aspirations  of  people  who  are  unlike  us. 
It  is  not  sufficient,  as  has  been  said,  that  we  respect  foreign  nationali- 
ties simply  for  their  points  of  likeness  to  ourselves.  Each  nation 
has  its  unique  contributions  to  make  toward  perfecting  the  general 
type.  Respect  for  others,  therefore,  on  the  ground  of  their  very 
difference  from  ourselves  is  quite  as  essential  as  the  recognition  of 
broad  underlying  similarities. 

In  the  daily  exercises  in  translation  much  should  be  made  of  the 
responsibility  for  reporting  correctly  what  another  person  says  or 
writes.  It  ought  to  be  easy  to  make  pupils  see  the  mischief  in  loose 
or  inaccurate  reproduction  of  the  statements  of  other  persons,  e.  g., 
gossip,  rumor,  or  distorted  versions  of  the  truth.  The  lessons  in 
translation  should  remind  the  pupils  of  the  need  of  rendering  accu- 
rately not  simply  the  letter  of  another's  utterance,  but  the  spirit.  • 

For  further  values,  see  section  2,  Literature. 

4.   ENGLISH    COMPOSITION. 

The  chief  aim  of  composition  work  is  the  efficient  imparting  of 
ideas  to  others.  From  this  poirt  of  view  pupils  should  be  held  to 
the  essential  consideration  that  to  convey  ideas  or  truths  to  others 
it  is  necessary  first  to  be  honest  with  one's  self,  to  realize  the  gaps  in 
one's  own  information  and  the  need  of  further  study  to  acquire  the 
necessary  knowledge.  Consciousness  of  one's  own  ignorance  and  an 
open  mind  are  essentials  of  character  no  less  than  of  ability  to  write 
or  speak  effectively. 

Success  in  composition  work  requires  the  pupil  to  take  the  point  of 
view  of  others.  More  is  exacted  than  that  he  himself  be  convinced 
of  the  truth  which  he  wishes  to  convey.  His  object  is  to  impart  that 
truth  to  others.  Hence  he  needs  that  training  in  imagination  which 
will  enable  him  to  look  at  things  through  the  eyes  of  other  people. 

Much  can  be  done  through  themes  that  especially  challenge  ethi- 
cal thinking.  For  example,  a  composition  on  "  The  Most  Disagree- 
able Occupation  I  Know  "  can  be  used  as  the  starting  point  for 
many  a  helpful  train  of  thought  in  personal  and  social  ethics. 

We  need  higher  standards  of  debate  than  those  ordinarily  preva- 
lent. There  is  moral  danger  when  young  people  are  more  eager 
to  win  a  victory  in  debate  than  to  achieve  the  right  object,  a  clari- 
fication of  the  truth.  So  common  is  this  mistaken  attitude  that  it 
may  often  be  advisable  to  let  the  work  in  oral  composition  take 
the  form  of  discussion  rather  than  formal  debate.1 

1  See  Johnston :  "  The  Modern  High  School,"  pp.  470  ct  seq. 


MURAL   VALUES   IN    SECONDARY   EDUCATION.  27 

5.    HOUSEHOLD    ABTS. 

Morally  important  as  it  always  is  to  learn  to  do  one's  work  well, 
it  is  especially  so  in  homemaking.  So  greatly  does  human  welfare, 
in  every  sense  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  depend  upon  the  effi- 
ciency and  the  moral  atmosphere  of  the  home  that  special  atten- 
tion to  its  many  problems  is  of  the  highest  necessity.  Under  our 
present  economic  life,  the  maker  of  a  home  needs  a  more  extended 
training  than  in  former  times;  she  needs  an  insight  into  problems 
of  to-day  and  a  command  of  the  best  methods  available  through 
modern  science. 

The  paramount  concern  of  a  good  home  should  be  the  personality 
which  it  is  to  develop  in  all  its  members.  A  home  is  something  more 
than  a  place  for  the  rearing  of  the  young.  Therefore,  physical 
well-being,  comfort,  refinements,  beauty  should  all  be  valued  in  the 
light  of  their  contribution  to  growth  of  character  in  both  the  parents 
and  the  children. 

In  this  regard  it  is  worth  noting  that  the  housekeeper  who  em- 
ploys labor  can  be  helped  into  a  better  relationship  toward  her  em- 
ployees by  first-hand  knowledge  of  what  their  work  necessitates. 
She  is  immeasurably  more  fitted  to  appreciate  their  service  if  she 
herself  has  done  housework;  she  is  more  likely  to  want  her  chil- 
dren also  to  show  such  comprehension.  Besides,  much  friction  can 
be  avoided  and  the  general  tone  of  the  home  raised  by  sensible  man- 
agement of  its  numerous  tasks.  There  are  many  households  which 
still  need  the  shrewd  advice  offered  in  that  picture  of  the  De  Cover- 
ley  home  where  Sir  Roger's  wise  economies  "made  his  mind  un- 
troubled and  consequently  unapt  to  vent  peevish  expressions  or  give 
passionate  or  inconsistent  orders  to  those  about  him." 

The  following  suggestions  will  indicate  how  a  course  in  household 
arts  can  be  made  rich  in  content  of  distinct  ethical  value: 

TJie  home  in  history.** — Study  the  functions  of  the  home  in  the 
progress  of  mankind.  Compare  the  home  with  even  the  best/ 
equipped  orphan  asylum  in  the  matter  of  developing  individual 
aptitudes.  The  teacher  has  an  excellent  chance  to  introduce  tne 
older  pupils  to  sound  ideals  of  marriage  by  emphasizing  the  f^ct 
that  the  joint  care  of  their  children  is  the  best  means  for  father  a^id 
mother  both  to  develop  their  own  personalities. 

Social  forces  affecting  the  hotne. — Consider  how  home  life  is  af- 
fected for  better  or  worse  by  urbanization,  commercialized  recrea- 
tion, etc. 

The  responsibility  of  the  consumer. — The  eagerness  to  follow  any 
fashion  so  long  as  it  is  new  plays  a  part  in  the  dislocation  of  indus- 

1  On  this  topic  the  teacher  will  find  much  that  is  useful  for  her  own  guidance  in  Good- 
sell's  "  The  Family  as  a  Social  and  Educational  Institution  "  (Macmillan). 


28  MORAL  VALUES  IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 

try,  helps  to  create  seasons  of  unemployment,  and  encourages  the 
making  of  commodities  which  wear  out  quickly.  The  work  of  con- 
sumers' leagues,  child  labor  committees,  etc.,  may  be  studied  to  ad- 
vantage. 

Cooperative  societies  in  America  and  abroad. — Pupils  should  know 
something  of  what  is  being  done  to  meet  the  cost  of  living  by  con- 
sumers' societies.  For  information  address  Cooperative  League  of 
America,  70  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York. 

Extravagance  and  thrift. — Temperance  is  not  exclusively  a  matter 
of  men's  refraining  from  alcoholic  stimulants.  Women  and  chil- 
dren may  be  intemperate  in  their  demands  for  sweets,  for  ornament, 
for  recreation. 

Beauty. — How  distinguished  from  luxury?  For  moral  value  of 
beauty  see  page  30.  A  home  made  beautiful  is  simply  a  home  ar- 
rayed in  the  setting  deserved  by  the  ideal  for  which  it  stands.  Lux- 
ury is  overelaboration  for  the  sake  of  excessive  comfort  or  for  the 
sake  of  mere  display  of  wealth.  Beauty  stimulates ;  luxury  enervates. 

Health  problems  may  be  treated  in  correlation  with  biology  and 
-afid  physical  culture.  The  opportunties  for  the  discussion  of  such 
matters  as  self-control  lie  upon  the  surface.  The  matter  of  teaching 
sex  hygiene  will  depend  upon  local  conditions.  Where  the  subject 
is  presented,  it  may  perhaps  be  best  not  to  overemphasize  it  by  sepa- 
rate treatment,  but  to  introduce  it  as  a  normal  corollary  to  other  in- 
struction. See  also  page  34. 

These  are  only  a  few  instances  of  the  opportunities  afforded  by  the 
course  in  household  arts  to  consider  ethical  problems  o.f  wide  im- 
portance. 

6.    NATUBAL  SCIENCES. 

Whatever  may  be  the  aim  of  science  teaching  in  colleges  and  uni- 
versities, in  the  high  school  it  must  always  keep  in  the  foreground 
the  close  tie  between  knowledge  and  human  welfare.  Instruction  in 
the  sciences  should  therefore  be  correlated  with  history  to  show  how 
man's  increasing  knowledge  of  the  physical  order  has  affected  his 
health,  his  industries,  his  homemaking,  his  intercourse  with  his  fellow 
beings  in  war  and  in  peace.  Much  should  be  made  of  the  biographies 
of  men  who  have  contributed  to  the  common  heritage.  This  is  im- 
portant in  order  that  pupils  may  appreciate  the  dependence  of  past 
and  present  upon  the  efforts  of.those  who  have  gone  before,  catch  the 
inspiration  of  lives  dominated  by  lofty  ideals,  profit  from  the  secret 
of  their  success,  and  remember  the  undying  contributions  of  the 
heroes  of  peace.1  While  warriors  have  undoubtedly  done  much  to 
benefit  mankind,  the  school  should  correct  false  notions  of  the  su- 

1  The  behavior  of  Darwin  and  Wallace  with  respect  to  credit  for  the  honor  of  being 
first  in  the  field  of  evolutionary  research  illustrates  how  devotion  to  a  great  idea  can  lift 
men  above  petty  jealousies. 


MOEAL   VALUES  IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION.  29 

premacy  of  military  or  even  political  glory  by  emphasizing  the  labors 
of  science  in  the  elevation  of  man  from  the  level  of  the  brute. 

The  science  teacher  can  clarify  the  pupils'  understanding  of  the 
meaning  of  law,  inasmuch  as  the  natural  sciences  deal  with  a  realm 
of  eternal  principles  which  the  caprices  and  feelings  of  mankind 
neither  create  nor  alter. 

Great  care  should  be  exercised,  however,  against  treating  human 
life  as  if  it  were  wholly  subject  to  the  principles  found  valid  in  the 
nonhuman  world.  Biology  affords  a  case  in  point.  Much  mischief 
results  from  regarding  man  too  exclusively  as  the  kinsman  of  the 
lower  orders.  In  his  world,  for  example.  "The  struggle  for  exist- 
ence "  and  "  the  survival  of  the  fittest "  should  possess  a  meaning 
that  they  can  not  have  in  the  realm  of  plant  and  animal  life,  i.  e., 
fitness  to  survive  is  something  quite  other  than  moral  right  to  survive. 
Or.  to  take  another  illustration,  better  than  "  adjustment  to  environ- 
ment "  as  an  aim  for  human  life  is  the  exercise  of  man's  capacity  to 
protest  against  his  environment,  if  need  be,  and  to  reshape  it  upon 
ideal  lines.  It  is  quite  possible  to  interpret  man  in  terms  of  his  like- 
ness to  his  inferiors;  but  this  is  only  half  the  story.  The  other  half, 
infinitely  the  better  half,  is  the  tale  of  how  man  surpasses  plant  and 
animal. 

Recognition  of  these  differences  should  not  be  left  to  accident. 
Man,  like  the  animal,  acts  upon  instinct;  but,  unlike  the  lower  crea- 
tures, he  can  be  taught  to  take  certain  attitudes  toward  his  natural 
proclivities.  Although  he  too,  for  instance,  has  his  physical  wants, 
like  hunger,  he  can  be  taught  the  etiquette  of  the  table  and  other 
codes  of  decency.  Like  the  animal,  he  feels  the  call  to  preserve  his 
own  life ;  but  it  is  no  less  a  truth  that  when  a  ship  is  sinking,  right- 
minded  men  make  way  in  the  life-boats  for  women  and  children. 
This  distinction  should  be  lifted  into  a  place  of  primary  importance 
in  the  teaching  scheme.  In  view  of  the  tendency  of  our  day  to  stress 
the  "  naturalness "  of  man's  impulses,  the  resultant  moral  damage 
should  be  forestalled  by  using  every  opportunity  to  emphasize  man's 
power  to  control  his  instincts  by  his  reason  and  his  will. 

In  the  daily  methods  of  science  study,  attention  should  be  directed 
to  the  importance  of  open-minded  investigation,  the  need  of  reserv- 
ing one's  judgments  until  one  possesses  the  necessary  facts,  and  the 
duty  of  reporting  observations  accurately. 

7.    MATHEMATICS. 

What  has  been  said  of  natural  sciences  as  a  means  of  strengthen- 
ing the  conception  of  law  applies  with  similar  force  to  mathematics.1 
So  likewise  of  the  contribution  of  mathematics  to  human  welfare, 

1  See  p.  18,  on  the  need  of  bringing  ideals  into  consciousness. 


30  MORAL  VALUES  IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 

and  especially  of  the  biographic  elements  in  mathematical  history. 
Pupils  are  often  led  to  take  a  new  interest  in  the  subject  when  they 
realize  that  their  textbook  represents  the  cumulative  contributions 
of  lofty  natures  from  India,  Arabia,  Egypt,  Greece,  and  other  lands. 
The  teacher  who  cares  for  his  subject  will  want  his  pupils  to  know 
something  about  Thales,  Plato,  Euclid,  Archimedes,  and  the  founder 
of  the  Pythagorean  fellowship.  He  will  try  to  'have  them  under- 
stand why  in  ancient  and  modern  times  mathematical  studies  have 
appealed  so  profoundly  to  intellects  now  counted  among  the  world's 
greatest. 

8.    ABT. 

The  art  studies  prepare  at  the  least  for  the  worthy  use  of  leisure. 
The  significance  of  such  use  of  leisure  should  be  shown.  Art  studies 
also  provide  occasion  to  satisfy  distinct  cravings  of  the  adolescent 
nature  which,  unless  they  find  a  healthy  expression  in  esthetic 
creation  and  enjoyment,  are  likely  instead  to  find  debasing  outlet. 
If  there  is  any  age  above  others  which  requires  to  be  fed  upon  beauty, 
it  is  youth,  with  its  disturbing  new  wealth  of  emotions.  No  recrea- 
tion can  be  more  wholesome  at  this  period  than  the  making  of  beauti- 
ful objects. 

The  relations  between  beauty  and  right  living  are  close.  Note  how 
frequently  terms  of  the  moral  vocabulary  are  taken  from  the  field 
of  esthetics  e.  g.,  "fair,"  "ugly,"  "fine,"  "course,"  "beautiful," 
The  thing  of  beauty  testifies  to  the  fact  that  there  are  values  in  life 
which  can  not  be  measured  in  terms  of  material  standards.  More- 
over every  beautiful  object  suggests  perfect  relationships.  Inspired 
by  this  conception  the  work  of  art  represents  painstaking  selection 
and  arrangement  of  precisely  those  sounds  or  colors  or  words  which 
contribute  to  the  perfect  whole.  Without  tedious  moralizing,  teachers 
of  the  art  studies  have  abundant  opportunity  to  put  forward  these 
analogies  between  beauty  and  noble  living. 

Group  activities  in  music  and  in  dramatization  offer  opportunities 
for  teamwork  by  which  pupils  can  effectively  learn  to  cooperate  for 
worthy  ends. 

,      ».   VOCATIONAL    GUIDANCE    AND    VOCATIONAL    EDUCATION. 

In  all  communities,  and  perhaps  especially  in  agricultural  com- 
munities, vocational  guidance  should  do  much  to  combat  false  notions 
of  the  greater  merit  in  the  so-called  gentlemanly  callings.  Too  man}' 
young  people  are  still  influenced  by  the  belief  that  there  is  something 
superior  in  bookkeeping  or  clerkship,  because  these  vocations  permit 
clean  hands  and  white  linen.  The  school  is  the  place  to  lift  into 
special  prominence  the  contributions  made  to  human  welfare  by 


MOKAL  VALUES  IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION.  31 

those  occupations  which  some  of  our  surviving  aristocratic  standards 
still  brand  as  inferior. 

Vocational  training  affords  the  pupils  compelling  motives  for 
entering  upon  their  daily  studies  in  the  right  spirit  and  for  exer- 
cising such  qualities  as  accuracy,  promptness,  a  sense  of  respon- 
sibility, self-control.  Teamwork  in  the  shop,  for  instance,  should 
contribute  much  to  their  ability  to  get  on  with  their  fellows.  As 
stated  in  an  earlier  section,  the  ideals  back  of  these  experiences  should 
be  brought  into  the  clearest  consciousness,  e.  g.,  not  only  should 
pupils  be  offered  the  chance  to  practice  self-control  and  personal 
responsibility;  they  should  be  given  all  possible  help  to  comprehend 
what  these  qualities  signify  for  life,  both  within  the  vocation  and 
outside. 

Youth  is  especially  apt  to  blunder  through  eagerness  to  do  things 
quickly.  Hence  the  importance  of  careful  training  for  one's  life 
work  should  be  stressed.  All  members  of  the  teaching  staff  should 
cooperate  to  lead  the  pupils  to  realize  the  value  of  continuing  at 
school  as  long  as  possible,  pointing  out  the  demand  for  the  educated 
person  of  to-day  as  contrasted  with  the  "  self-made  "  man  of  former 
times. 

As  the  pupils  advance  in  the  high  school  the  ethical  implications 
of  the  vocation  should  be  broadened  and  deepened.  As  in  other  sub- 
jects, how  far  these  ideas  can  be  grasped  by  the  younger  pupils  will 
depend  upon  teachers  and  pupils.  The  point  of  view  to  be  stressed 
is  twofold :  First,  that  employers  as  well  as  employed  are  in  the  last 
analysis  servants  of  society,1  and  second,  but  equally  important,  that 
work  when  rightly  conducted  is  a  way  of  improving  the  personality 
of  all  concerned,  that  making  a  living  should  help  not  hinder  the 
making  of  lives.  The  main  ethical  consideration  about  any  calling 
is  the  effect  for  better  or  for  worse  which  it  exercises:  (1)  Upon 
the  personality  of  the  man  who  enters  it,  e.  g.,  does  it  broaden  his 
mind  or  cramp  it? 2  (2)  Upon  his  fellow  workers,  e.  g.,  what  should 
"  setting  the  pace  for  one's  competitors"  mean?  (3)  Upon  the  peo- 
ple who  do  the  purchasing,  e.  g.,  compare  educating  the  public  taste 
with  debauching  it;  and  (4)  upon  the  other  callings  with  which  his 
own  is  interrelated,  e.  g.,  the  stimulus  given  to  modern  scientific 
labors  by  industrial  progress,  or  the  interchange  between  business 
and  art  in  such  fields  as  furniture  making  and  advertising. 

1  The  war  has  awakened  our  country  to  the  realization  that  farming  and  mining  are 
distinctly  national  services.     One  way  in  which  to  make  permanent  the  moral  gains  of 
to-day  Is  to  teach  the  young  people  that  it  Is  eminently  patriotic  to  fit  oneself  for  the 
best  performance  of  one's  life  work 

2  Compare  the  deadening  effect  of  ditch  digging  or  of  routine  "  efficiency  "  in  «  special- 
ized process  in  the  factory  with  the  opportunity  offered  to  the  employer  or  superintendent 
to  use  his  mind  vigorously.     Pupils  are  keenly  interested  in  the  point  that  brains  ar..  de- 
veloped bjr  overcoming  obstacles. 


32  MORAL  VALUES  IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 

The  ideal  rewards  of  work  should  be  given  full  honor  in  shaping 
the  choice  of  a  vocation.  These  consist  of  the  opportunity  to  benefit 
mankind  by  the  nature  and  quality  of  the  commodities  or  the  services 
offered  and,  equally  important,  the  opportunity  to  develop  intelli- 
gence and  other  attributes  of  personality7  through  useful  service.  In 
a  survey  of  the  vocations,  consideration  should  be  given  to  the  special 
temptations  in  each  calling  and  to  the  endeavors  that  have  been  or 
should  be  made  to  improve  the  code  of  its  ethics.  The  teacher  should 
be  especially  on  the  alert  for  every  instance  in  which  a  vocational 
group  is  trying  to  raise  its  standards;  for  example,  the  recent  efforts 
of  the  Associated  Advertising  Clubs  to  banish  advertisements  of 
fraudulent  medicines.  Through  biographies  of  leading  figures  in  the 
various  callings,  pupils  should  study  the  effect  that  the  work  exerted 
upon  the  personality  of  the  man.  Public  and  school  libraries  may 
offer  considerable  assistance  by  collating  material  in  magazines, 
books,  and  obituary  accounts  of  leaders  in  the  several  vocations. 
Much  stress  should  be  laid  upon  the  qualities,  particularly  the  moral 
qualities,  essential  to  true  success,  and  ways  by  which  these  may  be 
cultivated. 

In  short,  the  high  school  is  untrue  to  its  obligations  if  its  treatment 
of  the  vocation  accentuates  what  a  worker  is  to  get  from  his  calling  in 
material  advancement  or  fame,  and  minimizes  what  society  is  entitled 
to  expect  of  him,  and  what  he  makes  of  himself  by  meeting  this  ob- 
ligation. The  opportunities  which  any  of  us  enjoys  to  do  his  life- 
work  would  never  be  ours  if  we  were  not  the  beneficiaries  of  a  rich 
social  heritage.  It  should  be  counted  a  privilege  therefore  to  em- 
ploy that  heritage  in  only  the  worthiest  ways.  Impractical  as  this 
point  of  view  may  perhaps  seem  to  some,  it  is  well  to  remember  that 
if  it  is  not  brought  home  in  the  early  years  when  the  temptations  to 
ignore  it  are  less  insistent  than  they  will  be  later,  the  likelihood  of 
its  acceptance  in  the  years  that  follow  will  be  so  much  less. 

This  whole  subject  opens  up  magnificent  vistas.  Treated  sincerely, 
it  touches  vital  problems  of  civic,  economic,  and  general  social  reform. 
How  far  these  can  be  handled  in  the  time  available,  this  report  does 
not  undertake  to  say.  It  desires  to  stress  the  fact  that  every  possible 
occasion  should  be  utilized  to  make  the  interest  in  the  vocation  con- 
tribute to  a  more  enlightened  citizenship. 

In  a  course  of  lectures  delivered  in  the  Sheffield  School  at  Yale 
University,1  the  head  of  a  large  engineering  concern  told  the  young 
men  that  after  the  labor  troubles  in  Lawrence,  Mass..  of  five  or  six 
years  ago,  a  number  of  manufacturers  in  another  part  of  the  country 
cooperated  to  send  a  man  to  Lawrence  in  order  to  report  to  them 

•Gantt:  "  Industrial  Leadership,"  Yale  University 


MORAL  VALUES   IX    SECONDARY   EDUCATION".  33 

what  lessons  they  might  learn.  The  man  came  back  with  the  rather 
disconcerting  item  in  his  report,  that  while  the  men  in  the  offices  at 
Lawrence  knew  how  to  buy  and  make  and  sell,  they  knew  less  about 
their  own  labor  problems  than  the  labor  leaders  who  had  conducted 
the  strike.  The  latter  knew,  for  example,  how  the  increase  in  the 
cost  of  living  affected  the  quantity  of  milk  and  eggs  that  the  worker 
was  able  to  buy  for  his  children.  They  knew  its  effect  on  the  mind 
which  the  weaver  brought  to  his  loom  every  morning.  These  men, 
uncultured  in  other  respects,  had  learned  this  fact  of  history,  that  in 
spite  of  all  the  bad  things  alleged  about  the  labor  union,  it  had  to 
its  credit  the  record  of  preventing  the  creation  of  a  permanently  ser- 
vile class.  The  men  at  the  bottom  knew  at  least  this  one  item  about 
the  civilization — the  factory  civilization — in  which  we  happen  to  be 
living.  The  men  in  the  offices  did  not  know  it.  They  were  cultured 
gentlemen;  but  their  culture  did  not  tell  them  these  things  about  the 
essentially  industrial  society  in  which  they  were  captains. 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  noted  how  little  our  schools  do 
to  educate  industrial  foremen  and  superintendents  who  appreciate 
the  human  side  of  their  work  and  labor  leaders  of  a  high  type. 
Are  we  preparing  young  people  to  be  industrial  leaders  of  the  fair- 
minded,  forward-looking  sort  required  by  our  changing  social  order? 

So  important  are  these  needs  that  some  educators  would  prescribe 
a  certain  amount  of  industrial  work  for  all  pupils.  Nothing  so 
helps  one  to  evaluate  the  work  put  into  a  day's  job  by  a  mechanic 
as  first-hand  experience  in  similar  work.  To  be  sure,  the  perform- 
ance of  such  tasks  under  the  relatively  pleasant  conditions  of  school 
years  is  a  different  thing  from  work  in  a  factory  under  the  lash  of 
necessity.  Nevertheless,  the  importance  and  the  difficulty  of  the 
problem  should  spur  us  to  make  every  beginning  that  we  possibly 
can. 

10.   PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

While  some  gifted  persons  may  possess  strong  wills  in  spite  of  weak 
bodies,  for  most  people  physical  and  moral  vigor  are  connected  inti- 
mately. Samuel  Johnson's  remark  that  the  sick  man  is  a  scoundrel  is 
borne  out  by  innumerable  instances  where  irritability,  gross  indolence, 
exaggerated  fears  and  other  indications  of  weak  will  may  be  traced  to 
bad  health.  Other  things  being  equal,  boys  and  girls  will  bring  to 
their  tasks  minds  more  alert,  spirits  more  cheerful,  and  wills  more 
energetic  if  their  bodies  are  sound.  Particularly  in  adolescence, 
many  are  apt  to  entertain  morbid  fears  which  better  health  can  do 
much  to  banish.  The  same  may  be  said  of  other  nervous  disorders 
that  need  most  of  all  a  proper  physical  regimen. 


34  MORAL  VALUES  IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 

The  means  at  our  disposal  are  hygienic  surroundings,  instruction 
in  hygiene,  the  inspiration  afforded  by  ideals  of  self-control,  gym- 
nastics (including  calisthenics  and  folk  dancing),  and  athletics. 

The  moral  values  in  athletics  are  abundant.  Even  a  single  reason 
like  the  contribution  to  clean  recreation  would  justify  the  impor- 
tance attached  to  this  activity.  Warning  must  be  sounded  against 
excessive  eagerness  to  score  a  reputation  for  victories.  The  ethical 
aim  is  to  cultivate  the  spirit  of  teamwork,  and  especially  of  honor- 
able rivalry,  with  all  that  this  implies  of  fair  play,  courtesy,  and 
generosity  both  in  victory  and  in  defeat. 

In  gymnastics  much  can  be  done  to  instill  habits  of  instant,  volun- 
tary control  and  discipline  in  obedience  to  orders.  Without  the 
corrective  supplied  by  free  cooperation  in  sports,  gymnastics  on  a 
large  scale  might  perhaps  simply  inculcate  habits  of  automatic 
obedience  which  are  hardly  consistent  with  the  ideals  of  democracy. 
The  value  of  the  combination  lies  in  the  fact  that  both  types  of 
teamwork  are  needed,  each  in  its  special  place.  There  are  occa- 
sions— e.  g.,  on  an  alarm  of  fire — in  which  it  is  essential  that  whole 
groups  respond  implicitly  and  instantly  to  sharp  commands  from 
those  in  authority.  There  are  other  occasions — e.  g.,  a  civic  reform — 
where  the  freer  type  of  teamwork  is  required.  In  both  cases  what 
is  needed  is  not  only  the  practice  but  that  conscious,  intelligent 
grasping  of  the  ideal  to  which  reference  has  been  made  in  these 
pages  many  times. 

For  the  timid  natures  both  gymnastics  and  athletics  afford  ex- 
cellent means  of  developing  self-confidence.  Boys  and  girls  are  often 
helped  in  this  regard  not  simply  because  of  improved  health,  but 
because  of  the  self -trust  inspired  by  the  consciousness  of  having  over- 
come difficulties  once  feared. 

The  matter  of  sex  hygiene  had  better  be  treated  as  one  item  in  a 
program  of  self-control.  Care  must  be  exercised  against  giving  it 
too  large  a  place  in  the  students'  thoughts.1  Ideally  the  persons  to 
do  the  teaching  are  the  fathers  and  mothers;  and  the  school  through 
its  parents'  associations  should  do  all  it  can  to  help  them  meet  this 
responsibility.  In  view,  however,  of  the  fact  that  many  parents  are 
quite  incompetent  in  this  regard,  the  school  can  scarcely  fulfill  its 
obligations  to  the  parents  of  the  future  if  it  leaves  them  without  the 
benefit  of  skilled  guidance.2  It  is  well  to  remember  that  the  appeal 
to  fear  as  a  guarantee  of  clean  living  is  at  best  an  unreliable  motive 
and  not  infrequently  an  actual  mischief.  Far  more  effective  are  those 

1  See  p.  28. 

7  For  a  helpful  discussion  of  this  problem  see  "  The  Social  Emergency  :  Studies  in  Sex- 
ITy^iene  and  Morals,"  edited  by  William  T.  Foster  (Houghton  Mifflin  Co.).  See  also 
Bigelow's  "  Sex  Education  "  (Macmillan). 


MORAL  VALUES   IN   SECONDARY   EDUCATION.  35 

positive  ideals  and  practices  of  chivalry,  self-respect,  and  self-control 
which  it  is  the  business  not  of  one  department  alone  but  of  all  work- 
ing together  to  create  and  reinforce. 

VI.  THE  TEACHING  STAFF. 

The  work  of  the  school  depends  for  its  best  outcome  upon  the 
spirit,  the  ideals,  the  points  of  view,  that  the  teachers  bring  to 
their  daily  tasks.  It  is  not  enough  that  they  be  men  and  women 
of  a  high  degree  of  personal  excellence.  The  teachers  of  to-day 
and  to-morrow  must  also  be  animated  by  the  social  point  of  view. 
It  is  recommended,  therefore,  that  to  broaden  and  deepen  their 
outlook  teachers  supplement  their  work  in  the  classrooms  by  ex- 
perience in  community  work,  civic  and  social  betterment  as  repre- 
sented by  settlements,  civic  leagues,  and  other  agencies  for  social 
progress.  In  small  communities  the  teacher  can  not  only  contribute 
directly  to  the  civic  life  of  his  community  by  what  and  how  he 
teaches;  he  can  also  become  a  more  effective  teacher  by  making 
the  school  the  social  center  for  his  community. 

An  ideal  for  his  calling  is  suggested  by  Dr.  Felix  Adler  in  the 
statement  that  the  ethical  value  of  any  life  work  is  the  opportunity 
which  it  affords  to  get  into  right  relations  with  one's  fellow  beings — 
his  inferiors,  or  those  less  developed  than  himself,  his  equals,  and 
his  superiors. 

Right  relationship  toward  young  persons  requires  an  unfailing 
reverence  for  the  worth  yet  undeveloped  in  them,  but  capable  of 
infinitely  varied  and  noble  expression.  The  teacher  is  tempted  to 
take  a  wrong  attitude  toward  his  pupils  by  the  fact  that  he  is 
obliged  to  pass  judgment  upon  them  for  obvious  ability  or  failure 
to  reach  a  given  standard.  It  is  true  that  he  must,  indeed,  hold 
them  to  the  performance  of  certain  definite  achievements;  but  he 
should  remember  that  this  is  only  secondary  to  his  main  obligation. 
His  chief  concern  should  be  with  that  which  can  never  be  fully 
embodied  in  outward  accomplishment,  that  inner  potential  excel- 
lence which  even  the  best  external  achievement  can  but  faintly 
suggest.  It  is  not  his  main  task  to  have  certain  ground  covered 
in  English  or  science  or  mathematics,  or  to  see  that  the  school 
life  is  managed  smoothly.  These  are  only  instruments;  his  busi- 
ness is  to  see  that  they  are  used  as  such  to  further  the  growth  of 
his  pupils'  souls. 

In  no  calling  is  there  greater  need  for  right  relationships  among 
the  equals,  that  is,  among  the  fellow  teachers.  The  teaching  staff 
constitutes  a  community  in  which  multitudes  of  problems  in  right 
adjustment  arise.  As  in  other  communities,  the  members  are  apt  at 


36  MORAL  VALUES  IN   SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 

times  to  meet  those  problems  unbecomingly,  to  shirk  their  burdens, 
or  to  accept  in  not  the  best  of  grace  the  necessary  give  and  take. 
The  school  is  fortunate  in  which  ideals  of  willing,  generous  coopera- 
tion are  put  in  practice  by  the  teachers  themselves.1 

There  is  perhaps  no  better  evidence  of  the  respect  in  which  a 
teacher  holds  his  calling  than  in  his  attitude  toward  the  novice  in 
his  profession.  Many  a  young  recruit  loses  his  early  enthusiasm  as 
a  result  of  the  light,  indifferent,  possibly  cynical  way  in  which 
veteran  associates  have  come  to  regard  their  vocation.  The  better 
sort  of  teacher  wrill  make  a  special  point  of  seeking  out  the  new- 
comer and  helping  him  to  a  high  conception  of  the  value  of  their 
common  calling. 

The  principal  enjoys  a  rare  opportunity  to  bring  about  right  rela- 
tions in  the  teaching  community.  He  must  have  in  mind  a  more 
democratic  model  for  his  staff  than  the  pattern  set  by  an  army  or 
factory.  He  should  regard  himself  not  as  a  chief  drillmaster  issuing 
orders  to  a  corps  of  subordinate  drillmasters,  but  as  the  leader  of  a 
group  of  fellow  teachers,  each  of  whom  should  be  permitted  to  share 
to  the  full  extent  of  his  inclination  and  power  in  the  responsibility 
for  the  whole  school  community.  Teachers  are  less  likely  to  be 
indifferent  toward  the  management  of  the  school  when  it  is  their 
votes  that  decide  school  policies. 

Lastly,  the  teacher  needs  to  get  into  quickening  contact  with  the 
superiors  in  his  calling,  the  masters  living  and  departed,  who  gave 
their  best  to  elevate  the  world's  educational  ideals.  It  is  to  be  re- 
gretted that  the  teaching  of  the  history  of  education  is  often  so 
lifeless  that  few  teachers  care  to  go  back  in  later  years  for  freshened 
communion  with  the  great  host  of  leaders  from  Socrates  and  Plato 
and  Aristotle  on  through  our  own  generation.  Some  such  contact 
is  a  constant  need.  Life  is  kindled  only  by  other  life.  The  teachers 
who  mean  most  to  their  pupils  will  be  those  who  look  upon  them- 
selves as  heirs  to  a  noble  spiritual  tradition  pledged  like  their  pre- 
decessors to  enrich  it  still  further. 


We  have  touched  upon  the  leading  resources  available  for  further- 
ins:  the  paramount  aim  of  American  education.  On  a  topic  as  broad 
as  this,  much  more  will  suggest  itself  to  every  teacher  who  regards 

iA  teacher  in  a  city  high  school  set  his  pupils  an  example  which  is  certain  to  out- 
weigh the  value  of  any  of  the  facts  he  was  able  to  teach  them  in  his  special  subject.  H» 
was  highly  popular  with  the  boys,  and  on  the  departure  of  the  principal  he  was  placed 
in  temporary  charge.  The  lads  all  expected,  as  he  did  himself,  that  he  would  be  ap 
pointed  permanently.  Another  man,  however,  was  chosen,  and  the  boys  were  Inclined  to 
manifest  their  resentment  by  "passive  resistance"  of  one  kind  and  another.  But  they 
were  dissuaded  by  the  memorable  example  of  their  teacher.  Graduates  still  speak  feelingly 
of  the  lesson  in  loyalty  he  taught  them  by  the  hearty  support  he  gave  the  new  principal 
at  every  turn. 


MORAL  VALUES  IN  SECONDARY  EDUCATION.          37 


character  not  as  a  mere  by-product,  but  as  the  object  of  cerite&I-  im- 
portance. Every  possible  resource  should  be  cultivated.  The  demo- 
cratic ideal  is  high  in  the  demands  which  it  exacts  for  its  special 
type  of  worthy  living.  The  leading  mission  of  our  school  is  to  make 
the  utmost  of  all  that  will  promote  such  living,  and  in  that  process 
to  assist  in  purifying  and  elevating  the  ideal  itself. 


REPORTS  OF  THE  COMMISSION  ON  THE  REORGANIZA- 
TION OF  SECONDARY  EDUCATION. 


The  following  reports  of  the  commission  have  been  issued  as  bulletins  of  the 
United  States  Bureau  of  Education  and  may  be  procured  from  the  Superin- 
tendent of  Documents,  Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  D.  C.,  at  the 
prices  stated.  Remittance  should  be  made  in  coin  or  money  order.  Other 
reports  of  the  commission  are  in  preparation. 

1913,  No.  41.     The  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education.     Contains  prelimi- 
nary statements  by  the  chairmen  of  committees.    10  cents. 

1915,  No.  23.     The  Teaching  of  Community  Civics.    10  cents. 

1916,  No.  28.     The  Social  Studies  in  Secondary  Education.    10  cents. 

1917,  No.    2.     Reorganization  of  English  in  Secondary  Schools.     20  cent*. 
1917,  No.  49.     Music  in  Secondary  Schools.    5  cents. 

1917,  No.  50.     Physical  Education  in  Secondary  Schools.    5  cents. 
1917.  No.  51.     Moral  Values  in  Secondary  Education. 
38 


BULLETIN  OF  THE  BUUEAU  OF  EDUCATION. 

[Continued  from  page  2  of  cover.] 
1917. 

No.  33.  A  comparison  of  the  salaries  of  rural  and  urban  superintendents  of 

schools.    A.  C.  Monahan  and  C.  H.  Dye. 
No.  34.  Institutions    in    the    United    States    giving   instruction    in    agriculture. 

A.  C.  Monahan  and  C.  H.  Dye. 
No.  35.  The  township  and  community  high-school  movement  in  Illinois.     H.  A, 

Hollister. 
No.  36.  Demand  for  vocational  education  in  the  countries  at  war.     Anna  T. 

Smith. 

No.  37.  The  conference  on  training  for  foreign  service.    Glen  L.  Swiggett. 
No.  38.  Vocational  teachers  for  secondary  schools.    C.  D.  Jarvis. 
No.  39.  Teaching  English  to  aliens.     Winthrop  Talbot. 

No.  40.  Monthly  record  of  current  educational  publications,  September,  1917. 
No.  41.  Library  books  for  high  schools.     Martha  Wilson. 
No.  42.  Monthly  record  of  current  educational  publications,  October,  1917. 
No.  43.  Educational  directory,  1917-18. 
No.  44.  Educational  conditions  in  Arizona. 
No.  45.  Summer  sessions  in  city  schools.    W.  S.  Deffenbaugh. 
No.  46.  The  public  school  system  of  San  Francisco,  Cal. 
No.  47.  The  preparation  and  preservation  of  vegetables.     Henrietta  W.  Calvin 

and  Carrie  A.  Lyford. 

No.  48.  Monthly  record  of  current  educational  publications,  November,  1917. 
No.  49.  Music  in  secondary  schools.    A  report  of  the  Commission  on  Secondary 

Education.     Will  Earhart  and  Osbourne  McConathy. 
No.  50.  Physical  education  in  secondary  schools.     A  report  of  the  Commission 

on  Secondary  Education. 
No.  51.  Moral  values  in  secondary  education.     A  report  of  the  Commission  on 

Secondary  Education.     Henry  Neumann. 

No.  52.  Monthly  record  of  current  educational  publications,  December,  1917. 
No.  53.  The  conifers  of  the  northern  Rockies.    J.  E.  Kirk  wood. 
No.  54.  Training  in  courtesy.     Margaret  S.  McNaught. 
No.  55.  Statistics  of  State  universities  and  State  colleges,  1917. 

1918. 

No.    1.  Monthly  record  of  current  educational  publications,  January,  1918. 
No.    2.  The  publications  of  the  United  States  Government.    W.  I.  Swanton. 
No.    3.  Agricultural  instruction  in  the  high  schools  of  six  eastern  States.    C.  H. 

Lane. 

No.   4.  Monthly  record  of  current  educational  publications,  February,  1918. 
No.    5.  Work  of  the  Bureau  of  Education  for  the  natives  of  Alaska,  1916-17. 

Win.  Hamilton. 

No.    6.  The  curriculum  of  the  woman's  college.    Mabel  L.  Robinson. 
No.    7.  The  bureau  of  extension  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina.     Louis 

R.  Wilson  and  Lester  A.  Williams. 

No.    8.  Monthly  record  of  current  educational  publications,  March,  1918. 
No.    9.  Union  list  of  mathematical  periodicals.    David  E.  Smith. 
No.  10.  Public  school  classes  for  crippled  children.     Edith  R.  Solenberger. 
No.  11.  A  community  center — what  it  is  and  how  to  organize  it.     Henry  E, 

Jackson, 


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